Lowest bid isn’t always best


Thestar.com
March 24, 2015

Waiting for light at the end of the tunnel, March 21

City manager Joe Pennachetti’s suggestion that public-private partnerships would address our infrastructure cost overruns and delays is like sending the victim back into the arms of the abuser. We should be investigating city council and the Spanish consortium, not firing TTC senior staff.

After all, it was Rob Ford (open Rob Ford's policard) and Karen Stintz who decided to circumvent “quality-based selection” and go with the lowest bidder. It was council that forced TTC staff to negotiate with one of the largest foreign construction consortia on the planet and their arsenal of lawyers. Our understaffed and underfunded TTC expansion department didn’t stand a chance.

The solution is not to give more billion-dollar transit infrastructure projects to a few global players so they can run them privately, but to hire more staff in the TTC expansion department and make sure the design and construction goes to local, approved architects, engineers and builders that submit quality bids.

Brenda Thompson,Toronto

Too bad we can’t fire the provincial cabinet ministers and city councillors who pushed for the subway extension to Highway 7 and Jane in the first place - a catastrophically bad decision that flies in the face of all planning criteria and was initially opposed by TTC staff for that reason. Now, the TTC is saddled with the task of managing the two giant Spanish construction companies that were awarded the contract. We might note that our transit dollars are being poured into lucrative construction projects instead of a broader, cost-effective transit network. When these companies have finally finished digging their way to Vaughan, there will be another expensive tunnel to excavate for the Scarborough subway, if some people have their way.

Joell Ann Vanderwagen, Toronto