Minister grilled over Pan Am costs, delays at hearing

(Updated)
Next year’s Pan-Am games are once again in the spotlight, as politicians are openly raising questions and concerns about the budget, and whether the infrastructure for them will be ready in time.

That’s right, Hamilton East MPP Paul Miller gave the minister for the Pan-Am games an earful at Queen’s Park this morning.

Miller, as part of the expense committee, refuses to believe Michael Coteau’s claims the games are on time and on budget. He also took issue with foreign workers — and the integrity of Hamilton’s new Tim Hortons Field: “And it’s great to tell everybody that everything’s hunky dory, everything’s fine in Ontario, everything’s moving ahead, were gonna’ be proud. Well, I’ll tell you what, ask the people in Montreal how happy they were, about the “Big O”. Remember when it caved in and all the cement came down. I remember that. So you know what, why I said that minister is because we’ve already had concrete problems in the Tim Hortons Stadium. $147 million for that stadium, we’ve already had concrete problems and you know what one of the people you had running it was a foreign company, you didn’t even use Ontario Management Company. So I’ve got a French company. The guys that did the electronics and the tech, guys were outbid by another foreign company from France. And my local guys in Burlington and Hamilton didn’t get the contract and they are far better trades people than these guys — because there was no fire in the control room when our guys did it.”

The fire at Tim Hortons Field happened just before the Labour Day Classic. No one was injured. The stadium will host the soccer matches for the Pan-Am games. Coteau says they are on schedule and 50 million dollars under-budget in infrastructure spending.

There is one thing however, that could compromise the budget and that is security. The current costs are just estimates, and are not finalized. Coteau says if the OPP makes recommendations in regards to the safety of the games, he must listen to its expertise. Right now the security budget is at 239 million dollars, which is already double the original estimate.