U.S. firm to build Canadian Olympic pavilion

[SpongeG]

I'm surprised they are leaving it so last minute

U.S. firm to build Canadian Olympic pavilion

The Canadian government is defending its decision to hire a U.S. company to build the Canadian Olympic pavilion in downtown Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Giltspur Exhibits now has about 70 days to build the exhibit that will tell Canada's story to the world, showcasing the country's culture, heritage and industries when the Games open on Feb. 12.

Gary Lunn, Canada's Minister of State for Sport, defended the move, saying the government followed all the rules as set out by the Treasury Board of Canada and the Chicago-based company won the $9.2 million-dollar contract after a fair and open bidding process.
'Why did they wait until November to even put the contract out for bid?'
— Liberal MP Joyce Murray

"They won the contract fair and square and Canada will have a fantastic pavilion," said Lunn, MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands.

But federal Liberals have criticized the move, saying the bidding was only open for two weeks and the project had an extremely tight timeline, which discouraged Canadian companies from bidding.

Liberal MP Joyce Murray questioned why the government rolled out the contract on such a tight timeline.

"Given four years to prepare for Canada's pavilion at Canada's games, hosted in Canada, why did they wait until November to even put the contract out for bid?" she said.

"The industry were saying this was crazy," said Murray, MP for Vancouver Quadra.
Canadian workers involved

The federal government first announced it planned to build its own pavilion in late September, after plans to share a pavilion with British Columbia apparently fell through.

Lunn was unable to say if any Canadian companies managed to bid on the project and said the government simply went with the company that offered the most attractive bid.

The minister also noted Canadian workers will be doing much of the work.

"The Canadian pavilion is being built by a company that operates in a number of Canadian cities, by Canadian workers. And if you have Canadian workers building, there's nothing more Canadian than that," Lunn said.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbi...-builder-canadian-olympic-pavillion.html

there are 444 comments already

[Yume-sama]

The doomsday Liberal MP on the news was so annoying.

[Distill3d]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

I'm surprised they are leaving it so last minute

U.S. firm to build Canadian Olympic pavilion

...Liberal MP Joyce Murray questioned why the government rolled out the contract on such a tight timeline.

"Given four years to prepare for Canada's pavilion at Canada's games, hosted in Canada, why did they wait until November to even put the contract out for bid?" she said....

I think someone should give the Liberal MP a shake. There are at least 56 other countries qualified to compete in these games, so they're certainly not "Canada's" games.

[nova9]

Originally Posted by Distill3d

I think someone should give the Liberal MP a shake. There are at least 56 other countries qualified to compete in these games, so they're certainly not "Canada's" games.

Uhhh, it's being held in Canada........

But I'm not worried about the contract going to an American, I'm worried about how they could have left it until so late.

[WarrenC12]

Dumb move by the government. Of course this looks bad.

However I hope all of those Liberal MPs and complainers out there didn't take advantage of any US shopping deals last Friday, and always buy at Canadian stores...

Ahh, politics.

[Distill3d]

Originally Posted by nova9

Uhhh, it's being held in Canada........

But I'm not worried about the contract going to an American, I'm worried about how they could have left it until so late.

It may be being held here, but the Olympics belong to the world, not just Canada.

That said, I think this is a non issue who designs it. Its not like they're going to bring in foreign workers to come and build it. Its going to be Canadians that build it, it just has an American design. No harm in that, they are our biggest ally.

[mr.x]

Ideally, Canadians should be building their own pavilion...but does it really matter? The Olympics are an international event. In fact, in previous Games (and in London) the architects that designed the venues weren't even locals as they were international design competitions - foreigners won the contracts. The Vancouver venues, being cost conscious, did otherwise.

I think the main problem with the pavilion is that the feds announced the tender far too late.



Oh btw, a Seattle architectural firm designed our convention centre.

[BCPhil]

What do even need a pavilion for? The games themselves are going to be so full of our propaganda (the good kind, not the Nazi kind) and the city of Vancouver, the natural scenery, the venues, the village, and the parties, as a whole is a good representation of Canadian Spirit. We don't need some kind of "center" to show the world who we are, they'll see it plain as day.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

The doomsday Liberal MP on the news was so annoying.

She's quite rightly raising the issue of why Harper's Tories left the tendering of this contract so late. Its not like the Olympics were a big secret.

[SpongeG]

It doesn't matter to me who builds it - just wanna make sure it gets build in time - they are really leaving it close - even ontario started their pavillion already