Audit into increased budget for Science North’s Go Deeper project prompts changes | CBC News

The CEO of Science North said changes have been made at the science centre to take into account recommendations from the provincial auditor general’s probe of their Go Deeper project at Dynamic Earth.

Ashley Larose wants the public to know that while the budget has grown, the project is not operating at a deficit and all policies were followed in the development of the model mine at Dynamic Earth in Sudbury, Ont.

Larose said the auditor’s report is based on information provided by the organization.

According to the audit released Dec. 6, 2023, the model mining project’s cost rose from $5 million in 2020 to $15 million in 2023.

“Science North’s expansion project proceeded without proper planning and consultation, resulting in substantial cost overruns and delays,” said the report. 

Larose said the increase in budget is explainable due to a number of factors, one being the board asked the project leaders to make sure there were components of the project in eight partner locations across the north which added $1.7 million to the budget.

She added that there was inflation due to the pandemic as well as a higher cost to winter excavation at the Dynamic Earth location.

Far from being paused, Larose said it is operating on a balanced cash flow and the organization is actively fundraising.

“The project itself is full steam ahead and there is no deficit contained with this project,” said Larose. “So we’ve maintained a completely balanced cash flow meaning that we haven’t spent anything we haven’t secured. So any insinuations that there are deficits associated with the project just simply aren’t true.

CEO defends management of the Go Deeper Project

As for the auditor’s observation that a third party engineering assessment and involvement of a project manager team earlier might have helped the centre budget appropriately, Larose defended the way it was done.

“We did put together a strong project management team,” she said.

“But we do recognize that there’s opportunities for us to do better as we manage capital projects.”

She said they’ve taken several steps in the last 12 months, which include enhancing their project management team and hiring a new director who has capital project oversight experience.

Another item mentioned in the report addressed how a contractor was chosen for the project.

“The contract was single-sourced using an exemption approved by the CEO without Board input as Science North’s procurement policy provides unlimited purchasing authority to the CEO,” wrote the auditor.

“According to Science North, the company provided exceptionally advantageous conditions since the mining company was previously a partner in the design of the project and the work required was highly specialized.” 

Larose vigorously denies the contract was single-sourced saying that’s inaccurate.

“However, based on the report’s recommendation, we will be reviewing our procurement policies and our authorization threshold, so we do agree with that recommendation and at the time all policies were followed,” said Larose.

Larose emphasized that about $5 million have been spent, but no more, and fundraising continues and while optimistic that sponsors and levels of government maintain confidence in the project she won’t say whether they have made any more commitments.

The auditor said about $900,000 in private sponsorships had gone toward the Go Deeper project with the rest coming from all three levels of government to account for the $5 million amassed so far.

She says the new completion date for the project is spring of 2025 but that will depend on more sponsors coming to the table to cover the increased costs.

“So we have parceled out the work that needs to happen in ways that we can activate them as funding comes in,” she said.

She said there won’t be any winter excavation on the project due to the higher costs and maintains the organization is acting responsibly.

The NDP MPP fpr Nickel Belt is defending the organization and its use of taxpayer’s money in light of the auditor’s report.

“Science North is well-run, but they needed to bring some of their practices up to the new standard as well as up to the new ways of doing things, which they had not done, but they have now committed to doing that,” said France Gélinas.

“They (Science North) really looked at it as an opportunity to learn, as an opportunity to discover best practices that exist at other science centres when it comes to managing their projects and their money so I think they’re going to come out of this even stronger.”

The provincial auditor general is recommending the lessons learned from the Go Deeper project be applied to all capital projects Science North undertakes in the future.