Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Sep 13/02) - Talks have resumed with the government and contractor selected to build the new college campus in Inuvik.

Negotiations broke down late last month between the GNWT Department of Public Works and Services and the contractor GSA Construction, but have now resumed, according to Deputy Minister Bruce Rattray.

Rattray said they decided to go back to the table with the contractor when they read that the contractor still wanted to talk.

"Partially through the various papers, we learned that the company was still interested in discussing the contract," he said.

"We had received final offers from the company back in July and at that point we were trying to finalize something so we could get started on construction this season."

He said during previous negotiations, both the government and the contractor reached a stalemate.

"We really got down to short strokes -- we couldn't get together on it and that's when we backed off on negotiations."

Before talks resume, Rattray said the estimators are taking time to review the design but they hope to be re-negotiating "in a few weeks."

"We're still working with the consultant and the client to see if there are areas where we can reduce the cost on this," he said. "Once we're satisfied that we've got only those things in the project that we really need in the project, then we'll sit down with the contractor with a clean set of plans and we'll start over at square one."

They hope to have a deal signed by Christmas.

"We have some time to sit down and try and work something out before the end of the year," he said. "If we can't work something out, then we'll be going to tender in January."

Rattray said if the contract is tendered in January, the winning bidder will have ample time to prepare for the construction season.

The building was scheduled to be completed by September 2003, but will be a year late.

"We've already resigned ourselves to not meeting that deadline," he said. "The timeframe we're looking at now is the start of the school year 2004."

Principal architect Gino Pin of Pin Matthews Architects in Yellowknife said there is no way to cut project's costs.

"It's the type of project that if you reduce costs, you reduce quality," Pin said.

"The building has been designed to minimum area requirements and the program was really tight to begin with."

He adds that cuts can be made now but will only add future costs to operating expenses.

Calls to GSA Construction were not returned by press time.