Twice in three weeks late last year, Quebec’s Parti Québécois (PQ) premier, Pauline Marois, swooped into Montreal to play real estate tycoon.

First, she announced that a $246-million government office tower would go up in a derelict part of downtown, on the site of a now-shuttered intercity bus terminal. About 2,500 Revenu Québec employees will toil in the 14-storey, 58,000-square-metre (m2) building. On the premier’s next trip, she unveiled a long-term government lease for 14,000 m2 in a proposed private complex in what was once Montreal’s red-light district. About 700 provincial workers will be located in that building, at Boul. St. Laurent and Rue Ste. Catherine.

A closer look at the details of these projects reveals troubling signs:

– In the first deal, the government admits it has done very little planning, despite the precise price tag on the building, which is expected to open in 2019.

A government body – the Société québécoise des infrastructures – says its estimators came up with the figure. But the design has not been chosen and architects and engineers have not been hired. Marois estimates the province will actually save $40 million over 30 years by consolidating offices in the new tower.

But Quebecers have reason to be wary. When it comes to big projects, the province has a long history of bad planning and political meddling. That has led to many cost overruns and delays, such as a subway extension that ended up costing three times more than expected and a new headquarters for Quebec’s pension-fund manager that quadrupled in price.

Just down the street from Marois’ tower is another example. The new intercity bus terminal turned into a debacle that cost taxpayers about $225 million.

– In Marois’ second deal, the government admitted the new offices, to open in 2018, will cost taxpayers 45% more than if the bureaucrats stay where they are now. That amounts to an extra $2.5 million a year, or $50 million over the 25-year lease.

Quebec is signing the deal now even though real estate experts predict a glut of office space will make Montreal a renter’s market for the next two years. In other words, if the government would shop around, it could cut costs instead of increasing them.

Jean-François Lisée, the minister responsible for Montreal, describes the lease as a “political decision. It will cost a bit more, but that’s the price to pay, it seems to us, to revitalize St. Laurent Boulevard.”

The Opposition Liberals compare the lease to a job-creation plan championed by a previous PQ government in the 1990s. That plan provided generous tax credits to companies that moved into a sort of multimedia industrial park. Instead of creating new high-tech positions, companies simply moved existing jobs.

Marois’ announcements are all the more questionable when you consider the news that emerged during the week between them. Citing a sluggish economy and dwindling fiscal revenue, Finance Minister Nicolas Marceau abandoned his balanced-budget goal and projected a deficit of $2.5 billion in the current fiscal year.

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