Dear Editor,
I am pleased to respond to your Feb. 15 article titled “BCHS concerns at the forefront for Alberta Infrastructure Minister”.
Modernizing the Bonnyville Centralized High School is a top priority, and I visited the site on Thursday, February 13 and spoke with local officials to get to the root of their concerns.
I am committed to moving this project forward in a timely manner.
I take seriously local concerns about the contract bidding process. The Alberta government is responsible for hiring the general contractor. We have long-standing trade agreements and predetermined evaluation criteria for these types of contracts. For construction projects over $100,000, companies regardless of where they are headquartered, are able to bid in a fair, open and transparent system.
The selected general contractor must meet all the parameters. Two local firms submitted proposals, but did not meet all the requirements. My ministry provided these firms the information required to improve their future submissions, and we look forward to seeing more proposals from them.
We will soon announce the general contractor and move ahead to build Bonnyville a quality high school.
In the meantime, I encourage Bonnyville companies to continue pursuing other public infrastructure projects.
Right now, my priority is establishing a date for substantial completion and making sure this project gets built.
Yours sincerely,
Prasad Panda, Minister of Infrastructure