It’s not that we don’t have the $$ for WE Ferry Terminal project

Premier Andrew Fahie has explained that the government does have money for the West End ferry terminal project, despite what detractors might be saying.

“When persons do any project, even if you build your private home, there’s estimates that are done and you estimate that to the best of your ability,” Premier Fahie said at a recent press conference.

He continued: “When the time comes for contractors to bid, your hope is that they can bring in costing, as we would call it, within that area. If all of them are outside of it, that means you have to watch your bid or adjust your project accordingly.”

The Premier suggested that it’s difficult at times to announce the cost of any particular project before putting the project out for bids given that this might affect the bidding process.

“If you say the number that you have and the number for the project what you find is that contractors find how to bid towards that (figure) most of the time and sometimes it may work against you,” the Premier explained.

“So it isn’t that monies are not there, it depends on when the contractors put in their bid what will come out of the bid – whether it might be lower than what we have, it might be lower than what we have allocated, it might be more than what we have allocated – so we have to wait and see,” the Premier said.

Opposition leader Marlon Penn has repeatedly accused the government in recent weeks of starting projects while not having the necessary funding to do so, including the Elmore Stoutt High School redevelopment project and West End ferry terminal project.