Today I sat for most of the day down at city hall to hear the grilling some bureaucrats received over the $2.5 million in cost overruns at the city's new fire hall (Route 90 and Portage Ave.)

In the end, the committee voted to receive the report as information and let EPC decide what to do with the request to cover off the cost overruns.

So here is some advice for EPC:

1) Ask the chief, CAO and Deputy CAO (the three that presented today on the item) - "who is responsible for the debacle?" Once a response is given, start handing out big pay and benefit cuts. It is absolutely ludicrous for the three to not face any kind of accountability.

In most cases, the taxpayers that will have to pay for their costly mistake could only dream of having the same benefits those three enjoy; 2011 pay amounts: Sheegl $234,644, Joshi $167,934, Douglas $122,267. And then of course there are the rich pension benefits as well...who knows what that adds up to.

It should also be noted that a lot of private sector companies would either fire or sue someone for a mistake that is half as big.

2) The bureaucrat crew suggested they thought they could pay for the expenses within their existing budget for the entire fire hall replacement budget...yet they also claimed each project was separate - convenient how that works. EPC should really grill them on what cost saving measures they thought would amount to $2.5 million. The chief started to list potential offsets today, but then the CAO tapped his arm under the table the former stopped listing examples. It's time to grill them on how exactly they would account for the increase in the size of their project.

3) Speaking of $2.5 million in cost overruns, Councillor Eadie raised a good point today. He suggested that as $1 million was saved on the Sage Creek fire hall, the cost overruns are potentially $3.5 million for the Portage Ave project. It appears lower as the savings from one project is reducing the overruns for another. The committee never did get a good answer to that question...it would be good to keep probing.

Finally, I'll tip my hat to Councillor Havixbeck in particular for serving as a bit of an attack dog on this issue today. City hall definitely needs a culture change when it comes to cost overruns like this. The crats need to be made to shake in their boots over this non-sense and held accountable. Far too many people before them have gotten away without so much as a slap on the wrist.

Honourable mention goes to councillors Smith and Eadie for serving as good sidekicks.