Premier’s new hardwood floor cost $22,260

REGINA — It cost $22,260 to replace carpeting in Premier Brad Wall’s office with hardwood flooring last year, says an access to information request received by the NDP Opposition.

“We just thought it’d be fun to start off the session with a little bit of humour and maybe take a little poke at what we see as a real disconnect between what we’re hearing from the government and what we see them actually doing,” central services critic Cathy Sproule told reporters Monday after delivering — during the first day of the spring legislative sitting — a tongue-in-cheek member statement about the results of the NDP’s access request.

“In this case, we’re hearing about an austerity budget and cuts coming up — yet we find out that the premier saw fit to put a $22,000 hardwood floor in his office,” Sproule said.

According to the response to the access request, the material cost about $13,000 and the labour about $9,000. The work was completed during 2012.

Richard Murray, assistant deputy minister of property management in the Central Services Ministry, said Monday that the project was in the works for years and that the premier’s carpet — along with that in the legislative chambers, which was also replaced last year — was the oldest in the building dating back more than 25 years.

Options were examined, but solid oak was chosen both for its longevity compared to carpet and because of heritage considerations at the Legislative Building, Murray said, noting the total area was just over 1,000 square feet and there was a “complicated, heritage-type border.

“I feel it was a reasonable price to pay given the quality of the floor and the length of time it’s going to be in existence,” Murray said. “We’ll see many premiers walking on it in the future of the building.”

The decision wasn’t up to the premier — “he’s the boss, but it’s not his call; it really was our call and our process,” Murray said.

But Sproule said she “would think the premier has some opportunity to make that kind of decision or say not to do those kinds of things.

“The average person in the middle class would think — and I think personally — that’s a lot for a floor regardless of where it is. I put hardwood in two rooms of my house and it was nowhere near that. We see this government putting politicians before people,” she said.

Original Article
Source: thestarphoenix.com
Author: JOE COUTURE