Standing Committee on Public Accounts

Comité permanent des comptes publics

For immediate release

Ottawa, October 04, 2018 -

A 2006 independent analysis concluded that maintaining and repairing the existing Champlain Bridge over its remaining service life would cost more than the investment needed to build a new bridge by 2020. Nevertheless, the Government of Canada only announced the project to replace the bridge in 2011, according to a report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts presented to the House of Commons today by the Hon. Kevin Sorenson, Chair of the Committee.

In the spring of 2018, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada (OAG) released a performance audit to determine whether Infrastructure Canada managed selected aspects of the new Champlain Bridge, a public-private partnership, in a manner that would deliver a durable bridge on time and in a cost-effective manner. The audit showed that it did not, mainly because the management of procurement risks was not done properly. Moreover, the private partner’s ability to meet the revised completion date of 21 December 2018 remains uncertain. Also, Infrastructure Canada had no assurance that the new bridge would meet the expected service life of 125 years at the time it signed the contract with the private partner. The OAG, however, found no evidence that the bridge would not last the expected service life.

In its report, the Committee made five recommendations to Infrastructure Canada to ensure better management, planning and evaluation of large procurement projects, particularly in the case of public-private partnerships.