Hamilton auditor blasts Barton-Tiffany shelter project as costs balloon from $2.8M to nearly $8M

A scathing report from Hamilton’s auditor general has found that the vendors tasked with creating the city’s tiny shelter site were able to “make a meal” out of the project, due to a lack of oversight, weak contractual terms, and poor city planning. That left the taxpayer on the hook for millions of dollars in financial fallout.

The report provides an in-depth look at this project from its very inception and describes it as a situation that allowed for uncontrolled costs to spiral out of control, due to the urgency to get it open. Standard checks and balances were skipped and the city paid full price for a product that didn’t even meet provincial standards. Then they had to pay a premium to fix it while the vendors themselves have faced little accountability for the defects. CHCH News’ Roger Collins has the story.