The bids were very high compared to the budget, especially given that the budget was disclosed to the bidders at the pre-tender meeting in July. The gap was significant enough that we couldn't reasonably anticipate negotiating it down to within the budget. Cancelling the tender was the only option available to us to maintain an open, fair, and transparent process.
This does not mean that are not exploring options to bring the project budget down. One of the areas where we think that we may have some room to make changes is in the proposed fish processing lines and equipment requirements and the impacts that they will have on the building.