This is a view of Memorial University of Newfoundland as shot from Admiral's Green in St. John’s. MUN students are planning to rally today to support a hearing-impaired history major who says his professor refused to wear a device to help him hear her during class.
“Memorial is committed to following industry best practices during the construction of the Core Science Facility to reduce the risks associated with cost and schedule overruns and to ensure high-quality construction,” reads a statement provided Friday afternoon.
“These best practices include the use of pre-qualification for approximately 50 per cent of the project. Pre-qualification was open to local contractors and local contractors have in fact pre-qualified for the upcoming largest tender package.”
It goes on to note pre-qualification for bids on the main steel contract — questioned this week by the FFAW-Unifor — was open for local firms.
“While no Newfoundland and Labrador firms pre-qualified for this piece of the project, there are Newfoundland and Labrador firms in the disciplines of mechanical, engineering and general contracting that have pre-qualified and can bid on other tenders,” it states. “It’s also important to note that successful contractors in all disciplines are very likely to hire local firms and/or labour to carry out their work.”
The contract discussed this week includes 5,000 tonnes of steel. Another 1,000 tonnes of miscellaneous metals will be sought through separate tender, the university statement noted, suggesting this could be locally sourced.
