The contract has been awarded for the construction of a new municipal garage in Hawkesbury, and the project will cost more than originally estimated.

On Monday, June 3, Hawkesbury council awarded the contract to Beaudoin Canada of Gatineau at a cost of $8,812,000 plus sales tax.

The Beaudoin tender was the lowest of five the town received for the project. Council awarded the engineering services contract for the new garage to EXP Engineering for $235,000. Also, council approved increasing the budget for the new garage project to $10,750,000 from $8,500,000. The reasons for the increased costs are higher than anticipated engineering costs, the cost of a new sand/salt storage dome, project supervision and management, and higher costs for garage equipment.

So far, financing for the new municipal garage has been arranged in the form of an $8,500,000 loan from Infrastructure Ontario, the provincial government’s public works financing agency. Additional sources could include $2 million from the municipal general fund, and $250,000 from the Technical Service Reserve. The sources of financing are to be confirmed in the 2025 municipal budget.

In October 2022, Hawkesbury council decided to build a new municipal garage to replace the existing garage on Main Street East which is more than 50 years old and in poor condition. The site of the new garage is at 1300 Spence Avenue. In April 2024, council approved the design for the new garage.

When the construction contract and increased budget was approved by council on June 3, Councillor Antonios Tsourounakis asked if the policy of accepting the lowest tender must be firmly followed because of the small difference in price between the Beaudoin bid and the second-lowest bid, which was from ASCO Construction Ltd., which is a Hawkesbury-based company. The ASCO bid was $274,891 more than the Beaudoin bid.

 “It really has to be a competitive process,” Treasurer Philippe Timbers said in response to Tsourounakis’ question. Timbers explained there are certain laws which must be followed and the recommendation to award the contract to Beaudoin was based on the work the company was offering to perform.  

Mayor Robert Lefebvre said while many municipalities once had local purchasing policies, they have largely been made unusable due to other trade laws and agreements.