Coun. Dean Hollingsworth supported the over-budget bid for the art centre’s architectural and engineering contract, on Monday February 24, 2020 in Cornwall, Ont. Francis Racine/Cornwall Standard-Freeholder/Postmedia Network
The architectural and engineering services needed in order to complete the design and tendering of the Cornwall Espace des ARTS Space will cost a total of $404,099— nearly $115,000 more than was initially budgeted by council.
The news was confirmed at Monday’s council meeting, following a report recommending council award the project to GRC Architects Inc. The Ottawa-based company was one of three having presented the city with bid. The others included Lebel & Bouliane Inc. from Toronto, with a price tag of $406,437, and The Ventin Group Ltd., of Brandford. The latter’s bid was significantly lower than GRC’s, at $369,510.
The difference in price wasn’t lost on Coun. Syd Gardiner, who inquired several times as to why GRC’s price had been chosen over Ventin’s.
“Why didn’t we pick the lowest bid?” he asked administration.
According to the city’s general manager of financial services and treasurer Tracey Bailey, the price of the bid is only one of the evaluation criteria that were analyzed. Others included experience of proponent, experience and qualification and understanding of objectives.
“The RFP (request for proposal) are evaluated on a number of criteria,” said James Fawthrop, the city’s division manager for parks and recreation. “This company did very well in the other categories. They might not have the lowest price, but their experience is exceptional.”
“I just want to know why we aren’t accepting the lowest price,” Gardiner asked, a second time.
“All the criteria are weighted,” said Mark Boileau, the city’s general manager for planning, development and recreation. “They’re all scored the members on the committee, so it’s a fairly scientific process.”
Gardiner still deplored what he considered was a lack of the information that led staff members to recommend GRC’s bid.
“If you had told me that they (Ventin) were probably negligent somewhere, and then I would’ve understood why we picked the one that we did instead of the one with the lowest cost,” he said.
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For her part, Coun. Elaine MacDonald asked if it was possible for council to receive additional information on GRC’s evaluation score.
“I would like, if possible a bit of a description of what the winning group brought to the table, how they distinguished themselves and how they merited the award,” she said. “The public very much wants to see us do this art centre right.”
Despite saying he still had more questions regarding the whole process, Coun. Dean Hollingsworth expressed he would support awarding the contract to GRC.
“I’ll support it because you have to sometimes commit some money in order to figure out what it is you’re going to do,” he said. “I wish things were a little cleaner, but I know from previous projects I’ve worked on, it’s not always clean.”
Only Coun. Eric Bergeron voted against awarding the bid.
The city is still waiting to see if its funding application sent to the provincial and federal governments will be approved. The answers should be received sometime this year.
If the applications aren’t accepted, the city might have to finance the majority of the $6-million project.
