While BC’s Justice Minister was embroiled in a sole sourcing scandal involving a former caucus colleague, the Columbia Institute launched a campaign encouraging the province to implement a local preference policy for provincial shipbuilders.
The Vancouver Sun reported that BC’s Justice Minister awarded a six-figure sole source contract to a former political colleague:
VICTORIA — Justice Minister Suzanne Anton broke government procurement rules in awarding ex-Liberal MLA John Les a $140,000 earthquake consulting contract, says the Opposition NDP. Anton admitted Thursday it was ultimately her decision to give Les the contract, without putting it out to public bids. The government’s procurement guidelines state all contracts worth more than $75,000 must be posted publicly on its B.C. Bid website and can only be directly awarded to a person if “only one contractor is qualified,” in an “unforeseeable emergency” situation, or if public bids would harm a person’s life or confidential process.
“None of those conditions, I believe, apply in this case,” said NDP critic Shane Simpson, who has called the job a pork-barrel patronage appointment. “Clearly the minister and the ministry broke the rules by choosing her favourite, Mr. Les, instead of going through a proper process.”
While the Justice Minister insisted that the government’s urgent need for a consulting report constituted an “emergency” under the sole source rules which justified the $140,000 direct award, BC premier Christy Clark disagreed and “scrapped the Les contract Wednesday, saying Anton made a mistake and the amount was not in keeping with government’s push to control spending.”
In the meantime, BC Business reported that the Columbia Institute called on BC Ferries to implement a “made in BC procurement policy” for new shipbuilding projects:
The labour-friendly Columbia Institute released a report Monday that…points to $378 million in economic growth, $100 million in tax revenues for the federal and provincial governments, and 1,100 new manufacturing jobs as being among the key benefits. Published by the Columbia Institute, which has ties to several major unions, the study looks to reignite the debate around the B.C. government’s procurement policy, by comparing it to the federal government and Washington State’s “build local” policies.
The BC Business story concluded by noting that “memories from the much-politicized failure of the B.C.-built PacifiCats, which cost $270 million before massive cost overruns, has largely stymied the province’s appetite for a made-in-B.C. procurement policy” and that BC’s largest shipbuilder, Seaspan, is already at capacity delivering on the $8 billion federal shipbuilding contract awarded under Ottawa’s national shipbuilding program. In a related story, CBC News reported that all of the federal government’s major shipbuilding projects are either behind schedule or over budget, with the Vancouver shipyard’s joint support ships project achieving the dubious distinction of being simultaneously behind schedule and over budget.
