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COMMENTARY: P.E.I. government can’t build anything on budget

Imagine hiring a contractor to renovate your kitchen. He quotes you a price and then the final bill is nearly double. When you ask what went wrong, he shrugs. And he never shows you a final accounting.

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You would fire that contractor, refuse to pay and warn your neighbours. On Prince Edward Island, that contractor is the provincial government. And a recent report from auditor general Darren Noonan proves it.

The auditor general examined 12 government construction projects. Eleven came in over budget. Combined costs ballooned from $81.5 million to $150.6 million. That’s an 85 per cent overrun.

Nearly half of those overruns, about $29 million, were identified before construction even started. The government approved projects without knowing what they would cost because it had no minimum planning standards in place. Projects entered the capital budget half-baked and taxpayers paid the price.

Not one of the 12 projects received a........

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