Time to stop complaining about Bluenose II cost overruns: deputy minister
HALIFAX — It’s time to stop criticizing and complaining about the troubled restoration of a Canadian icon, the deputy minister overseeing the Bluenose II revitalization said Wednesday after years of technical missteps that have seen the project’s cost balloon to about $25 million.
Paul LaFleche said the divisive debate about the storied schooner’s prolonged rebuild only hurt the province’s shipbuilding industry and tarnished the image of the 43-metre vessel, a replica of the original Grand Banks fishing schooner that won worldwide fame for its design and speed.
“I’m here to implore everybody to move on,” LaFleche, of the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal, told the public accounts committee.
“Everybody made mistakes … The real issues come up because of the politics of this and we as civil servants wish that everyone would step aside from the politics of this.”