New docs show bid was nearly $2 million below second-lowest estimate
The Montreal construction company that was awarded the now-contested $8.9-million contract for a Parliament Hill renovation project bid $2 million below the second-lowest estimate, new documents show. That’s a big margin, given that the four other bids came in within $500,000 of each other. How LM Sauve, the construction company, made it to the shortlist for the reno, and then won over other much larger companies, is the question at the heart of the controversy over the contract. The RCMP is investigating a possible breach of lobbying rules and anti-corruption laws but Paul Sauve, head of the company, maintains that his firm was qualified for the job, citing past work on federal office buildings in Montreal, and upcoming project on Vancouver’s city hall. He says he hired Tory-connected Quebec businessman Gilles Varin to help get the work and paid him $140,000 for his efforts. Though LM Sauve won the job in 2008, the company went bankrupt a year later and lost the contract.