Federal government spends $725K on Sudbury office building before construction starts

The federal government has spent $725,000 in downtown Sudbury over the last year and a half,and construction hasn't even started.

It's gone to pay for scaffolding which surrounds the federal office building on Lisgar Street and has since spring of 2016.

"The scaffolding remains in place as a cautionary measure," says Graham Holt, the communications advisor for Public Service and Procurement Canada.

That precaution is being taken because pieces of the marble facade have been falling off and down onto the sidewalks and parking lots below.

The "multi-million-dollar" facelift of the office building, which went up in 1957 and got an upgrade in 2001, was supposed to start this year, but Holt says the tender is now expected to be issued this winter, with construction beginning in the spring of 2018.

"The project entails a rehabilitation of the facade of the building. To extend the life and restore the heritage characteristics of it," says Holt.

Aaron Wudrick, the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, says governments are rarely efficient whenit comes to making purchases, big or small.

"Politically, governments are reluctant to commit large amounts so they push things off and that often makes us pay more in the long run," he says.

"If the people in charge of the public purse can't even get the little things right, what confidence does that give us that they're actually managing the big things as efficiently?"