Mr. Speaker, today I would like to address a serious budget problem that we have been facing for several years. It has become normal practice that capital projects continue to come in over budget by the time of completion. On several occasions, the Minister has been questioned about what can be done to spend our money more wisely, to use the money for projects that compete for capital funding instead of using it for overruns. The Minister explained that the process takes several years of planning from business plan proposals, to design, to tendering and final realization. The problem is that projects have been approved in the capital year that are not being realized in that year. When they get rolled over into the next year, there is the problem that the rollover now, because the costs have increased by 10 percent or even more sometimes. Then the Minister will give us many reasons why they cost so much and why the capital costs are as they are.
One concern that I have with this is the reasoning that nobody in government seems to be responsible or is held accountable for this problem. However, as always, I'd like to take a positive step and approach this situation with some suggestions on how we can improve our capital planning process.
In the new year, we, as Members, vote on projects. We need concrete figures that are based on realistic business cases, including breakdowns for designs, materials, shipping and labour costs. The total price tag should always include cost variations. We need a price tag that reflects the true costs of the project. The approach of tendering always requires some attention. Tendering for building contracts have to be timed with construction season in mind, Mr. Speaker. Building materials have to be ready for construction in spring, using the long summer days and warm temperatures to save costs. I'm convinced we could save a lot of money by not starting construction projects in the middle of winter.
If projects are delayed or deferred in the new fiscal year, we should be voting on them on the updated business case showing the true cost for that year. This would require new debate, resulting in new votes, instead of coming back when the project is half finished with the budget eaten up entirely, requesting adjustments that hardly anyone in this House can truly deny, because a half finished project does not help anyone.
Mr. Speaker, I will pause here with my suggestions to improve our approach to realizing capital projects and I will have questions for the Minister later today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause