Cornwall ON – Mark A. MacDonald’s taken the first shot in the fight for mayor of Cornwall Ontario today. He sent in this release which we’re sharing with you our viewers.
At a recent meeting of Council it was learned that City Administration is recommending a 5.6 million dollar contract be awarded to a Kingston firm even though a local firm met the qualifications and entered a lower bid of 4.8 million dollars.“This is not the first time a local contractor has been treated in this manner”, stated MacDonald, “we recently went through a similar situation regarding the Glen-Stor-Dun Lodge”, he went on to state.
In a letter from the Thompson Rosemount Group, a GENIVAR Company that has been in Cornwall since 1956 and employs local people, they make clear their position stating that “our proposal offered some alternative strategies for reducing overall project cost and offered a lower fee”.
“It must be made very clear that Council makes the final decision not Administration and that by awarding this contract to an out of town firm, especially since we have a qualified local contractor with a bid that is $750,000.00 less expensive, is just not acceptable”, MacDonald stated.
“This is the single largest project ever to be undertaken by the City of Cornwall, overall being worth some 55 million dollars and we should do everything possible to help create jobs locally”, said MacDonald.
What do you think Cornwall? You can post your comments below.
Thank you Mark for letting the public in on this story I was shocked about this when I first heard of it last week.I agree with you that this contract should remain in Cornwall for our Cornwall workers. Also as you said that the decision on who gets to decide on this should be the ones voted in to represent the people of Cornwall and not the hired help. I strongly believe in shop locally or made in Canada first to keep our citizens working and that the money wasted for this contract to go elsewhere should come from someone else’s purse and not the Cornwall taxpayer.
It makes sense.. Keep as much local as we can. Also we should stop paying large fees for consultants to tell us what we already know.
What is the contract for?
Mark
Thompson Rosemount or Genivar as they are now called are probably not the best team for the job. I know there are many issues with a past water project done imp South Stormont. It was Detra…mental cost wise.
I also believe that in assigning this project to Genivar will employ people primarily from Quebec. It has been Cornwall’s unfortunate legacy that corporations and companies move into the seaway city only to take work back to La Belle Province.
Currently with the EPCM market in such a lull I am confident Genivar feels the crunch and is also reducing staff.
I can see a good portion of the work will not be done locally or by local people as the Quebec EPCM company will prefer to keep the staff as opposed to a small insignificant company in Ontario, in the Genivar business opinion. I am sure TRG has more then competent staff.
We also have to consider how the project costs will be impacted if people are brought in from Quebec. We have travel, accommodations and all other forms of remuneration associated with project travel.
Yes, proposals are written and incidentals are added up. In the end does TRG have the experience to work as a satellite office for a bigger brother and how thorough was their proposal researched in their new status?
You may have buddies their Mark or you may not, please use common sense on this decision and do not just use it as a stepping stone to get elected. There are only a few people in that office and I bet a good portion do not even live in the city.
If Thompson Rosemount came in as the low bid, they should win the tender. This has been the cities approach on all other projects. I agree 100% in keep everything local. Cost over runs are part of the building process. You can only bid on information you have at the time of estimating. If a local company is 5% higher, then keep it local. The people unemployed need the work, the tax base needs the money. Thompson Rosemount in my opinion is a knowledgeable company with as many resources as any company bidding on the work.
willie
I agree it would be great to keep employment local.
A low bid is good, but would you hire a plumber to do electrical work just because he was cheaper? Or if the plumber has shown past practices that are of concern would you even consider the plumber? I would think there are more issues on the table then money.
Mark could be playing a trump card a little early in his election campaign. If you get the suprise the people first then let the news settle all people tend to remember is what tidbits of news that was fed to them not what is truly happening.
Also remember what I said in the first post, this is a Montréal based company and no longer TRG. Giving this project to them could very well end up being done in Montreal.
That will not happen smee. Trades have regulations to follow. All companies bidding on these projects are all qualified before the site visit. If there are concerns, the companies would not even be invited to a site visit. As long as they can provide bonding, if anything should go array, the insurance company would be called in.
As far as Mark playing his trump card, I disagree. This is just simple common sense.
I think we are crossing stream willie I was unclear in my post sorry.
I understand the trades have requirements and regs to follow.
The scenario I used was a generalization for the engineering portion of the bid. Let me rephrase, would you hire a firm that is primarily involved in commercial projects to build a more industrail facility.
As for trades regulations, well maybe that is an issue of concern, almost Detra mental to projects
The other company J.L.Richards is a highly reputable company that deals all over the world. If the low bidder Genivar does get the contract, we’ll comment again when we find the works being done out-of-province. Then you naysayers should all get a swift kick!
hey smee, I worked in the construction industry for a union company in the GTA for several years. I was part of the staff. If an engineering firms meet the specs set forth by the owner, I certainly would hire them. Engineering is engineering. The problem with engineers, if the make an error on the drawings, they are not held responsible. The contractor holds the liability. To answer your question, I certainly would.
willie
Ask why TRG last water project cost the residents of south dundas an additional million dollars to be paid out of taxation increases. I am sure they and let me quote “If an engineering firms meet the specs set forth by the owner” It could have been a constriction issue or maybe survey issue or trades issues or even construction management issues, but it still comes down the group assigned the EPCM contract.
As well you seem to think all work will be done in this area, remember it is a Montreal company and you can count on a good portion of the project ending up in Montreal. I base that from working with companies out of Quebec. If that heppens then we could also loose the construction to Quebec as well, You have construction experience and should be familiar with the fact that there are restrictions to working in Quebec but none for working in Ontario.
I wish TRG all the best but this Quebec issue is something I do not trust.
That’s how the construction industry works smee. I remember the Corbitt Creek water plant in Toronto. The project turn into a mess due to poor engineering. The cost skyrocketed. It cost tax payers a huge amount in extras. All contractors were qualified by the engineers to work on the project. There were no penalties to the engineering firm. The bidding format must change.
The issues are always money. When an engineer misses something, they contractor has a blank cheque because they won the bid. When estimating, we would look to see what the engineers missed. Often time, there was so mush missed, we bid very low, and then make huge margins on the extra’s.
It’s just the way it is.
BTW smee, I do agree with you. Things must change in the bidding process.
Don’t get me started about construction contracts at our government controlled power plants.
Suffice it to say, There is no Mac Thompson experience nor ability left at TRG.
You know, I’m tossing my 2 cents in here.. The other night, I went to Brockville to enjoy the Johnny Winter concert along with special guest Jimmy Bowskill, whom I have to say has one hell of a set of pipes… Just a fantastic show… while in Brockville, I just happened to take a while to notice the city, and it’s beautiful.. What an awesome place, so alive, and then I happened to take a moment to think of whats going on here in Cornwall..
And damnit, though I wish this place was much more, sadly, I see why the councillors get paid more per capita in Brockville then they do here in Cornwall.. I mean, COME ON!!! What an awesome place over there, and in the meantime, we’re dealing with all this crap thats going on over here.. We need much more solid Mayoral material and council material then what we have been experiencing over here so far..
Want a 38% increase??? PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS AND FINALLY DO FOR THIS CITY WHAT YOU ARE MEANT TO DO FOR THIS CITY, BECAUSE DAMNIT, YOU SUCK COMPARED TO OTHER PLACES!!! AND DESERVE A DECREASE IN PAY FROM WHAT MY OPINION IS!!!
GO MARK MACDONALD!! ANY CHANGE IS BETTER THAN WHAT WE’VE HAD HERE IN THE LAST LONG TIME!!
Cheers to you grimalot!!!!!!!!
Grim, your 2 cents is always welcome. Don’t forget to pay your taxes on the 2 cents.
Thanks to smee and willie191. But I’m totally serious, Cornwall and the way its running is PATHETIC compared to these other places.. I have half a mind to move to Brockville after what I just experienced over there.. Kudos to their Mayor and Council for getting done what needed to be done, and they have turned that city around from when I was there over 15-20 years ago.. now thats progressive change, not like what we’re dealing with here… come pay to walk your dog… come to our un-needed 4plex arena… come dole out taxes out of your wazoo while you watch nothing happen for it… I mean really???
Oh, we also have an inherent knack for killing any historical sites this city had… thats another beautiful thing about Brockville, they put work into the old places and revamped them, and managed to keep a lot of their historical sites as well, many very old homes, very old brickwork, carriage houses turned into homes, etc, what a beautiful place, I wish I had my camera with me at the time because I would post the pics to just how beautiful that city is…
Grimalot, we may hare traded barbs and opinions in the past but this time I totally agree with you 100%
Cornwall is run by retard. There is a huge need for infrastructure change. Nobody is responsible; nobody cares as they near retirement. Just make it to the end and I no longer have to worry about it…..
Grimalot whats a wazoo?
I lived near and worked in Brockville for many years. It certainly does have lots of beautiful and well maintained old buildings, but I found that beauty to be only skin deep. It’s an OK place if you happen to be white, Christian, English speaking, heterosexual and above all, conservative. It’s one of the last Canadian “cities” I’d choose for a home.
Wazoo may refer to:
* Slang for anus Originally derived from the Pama-Nyungan languages (the family of Indigenous Australian languages), and thought to refer to the anus of an animal, particularly the kangaroo.
* The Grand Wazoo, 1972 album by Frank Zappa
* Wazoo (album), 2007 live album by Frank Zappa
* Wazoo (candy), candy bar made by Topps incorporated
* WaZOO (Warp Zillion Opus-to-Opus), the session layer protocol for Fidonet
* Wazoo, Alabama, the fictional town setting for the movie My Cousin Vinny
* Wazoo Sports Network, a local sports channel in Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky
* Washington State University (WSU), nicknamed Wazoo/Wazzu
well again, thanks for agreeing with me on this smee because I do find its important.. it would be nice to see some major, and fruitful changes for once instead of all this crap going on here..
Antipasta, wazoo is just a kinder term for coming out of the behind (but Im sure you knew that already).. 😉 I see our taxes going up and up, more and more red tape, and for what? what are we getting for it? People leaving, thats what we’re getting for it.. artists cannot even go and play their guitars by themselves anymore in this city without a license for example (they were sitting by themselves, no hat, nothing, just playing guitar in a park, and were chased away because they didn’t apparently have a license to play their guitar)… what kind of crap is that? I thought we want to attract people here, not make them pay for what should just be a normal part of life and then them wanting to just leave as they just got ticked off over having to do that…same with having to pay to walk a dog??? With the amount of taxes we pay here, we should have had an off leash dog park a long time ago.. hell, 45000 paid to scare geese would have done great strides in obtaining such a park.. but noooooooooooooo… not here in Cornwall… we should have bought a Swan or 2 if anything, like other cities do, and that is quite effective in getting rid of Geese since Swans are so territorial..
A little tip to the council, sometimes you need to spend money to make money, so beautify the city, eliminate this BS red tape all over the place, put some complimentary parking for once, get a FREE off leash dog park, attract the masses, and then start pulling something in… that’s the way it should be… I mean who the hell is in their right minds to keep making people pay for everything, ticking them off, and ultimately making them move away at some point.. like I said, I have half a mind to leave as well seeing what I’ve seen around here over the years…
nous avons besoins de prendre notre place dans notre belle ville de cornwall elle est a nous arrete de passe la serviette a un autre alors moi je voie que nous avons besoin d avoir un nouveau maire qui va etre la pour nous,, present dans nos rues et etre la pour repondre nos questions et d avoir la porte ouverte pour nous ,, bravo mr marc je vais etre une des 1iere en ligne pour dire oui pour vous lache pas signe marie
Je consens totalement que Marie et très bien a dit
I see it’s official now that Toronto City Council has announced that it takes an official policy of endorsing the decriminalization of marijuana by signing the Vienna Convention. So I don’t feel out of line asking if Mr. MacDonald has the same forward thinking as Toronto City Hall or would he rather seven or eight thousand of his constituents go to prison under Bill S-10? Just as a favour to us all, since it is national news that a city can have a Federal opinion, can I get some comment from everyone running just so I don’t have to be rude and spam out? It is a reasonable and polite question and it matters.
Mrs. Not Fringe Any More
could we apply that same question to Bob Kilger also?