The Hamilton West Harbour budget overruns continue with the project is now $1.6-million over its $14.2-million budget.
Included in this figure is the $3-million given to The Hamilton Waterfront Trust – a City of Hamilton agency structured to avoid Municipal Act transparency laws and to allow former City of Hamilton staff to collect both a Trust salary and their City Hall pensions at the same time – in “compensation” for the City’s plan to sell the Discovery Centre which the Trust was losing money operating.
The $3-million is in addition to the 10% “management fee” being given to the Hamilton Waterfront Trust on all City infrastructure spending in the West Harbour.
Over at Bayfront Park, the new Parks North Yard project is significantly over budget as well. Instead of the $4.1-million budget, the cost has now reached over $4.7-million. No explanation is provided in the budget lines report.
Everything the city touches is over budget except for the horrible roads and railway tracks in the industrial area they have neglected them for years some streets should be deemed unsafe get rid of all city council and start fresh and never mind what they did to our water !!
How close are these projects to completion (either by their own estimation or to any reasonable outsider)? Cost overruns are unpleasant, but sometimes unavoidable, but a 10% overrun is a lot easier to stomach when the work is 90% complete compared to when it’s 50% complete.