It's Just Money

Clearly:

The Parliamentary Budget Officer recently estimated that the federal government’s order of 15 warships could now cost taxpayers as much as $70 billion, up from an original estimate of $26 billion just four years ago. The eye-watering figure makes the order of 15 combatant ships — a “Type 26” frigate to be built by Irving Shipbuilding — potentially the largest single government expenditure in Canadian history. The costs will be spread over roughly 25 years, with the first ship slated for completion in the mid-2020s. ...

Project: Halifax-class warships

Cost: $20.2 Billion

The contract to build a fleet of 12 frigates over 15 years eventually cost federal coffers $9.3 billion, according to estimates in the mid-1980s (or roughly $20 billion in today’s dollars). The now-defunct company MIL-Davie Shipbuilding, whose facility is now operated by Chantier Davie Canada, was awarded part of the overall contract. It blamed widespread cost overruns on government indecision, saying the feds proposed “50,000 design changes” to the frigates. In 2007 the government announced a roughly $4-billion retrofit program to modernize the fleet. The Halifax-class ships have been in operation since 1992.

Project Trans Mountain pipeline

Cost: $4.4 billion

Finance Minister Bill Morneau signed off on an agreement last summer to purchase the 1950s-era pipeline, effectively nationalizing the project. The decision came after the pipeline’s Houston-based owner, Kinder Morgan, froze all capital spending on the project and threatened to scrap it completely amid a host of legal challenges. Ottawa is now tasked with an expansion project that would nearly triple Trans Mountain’s capacity, expected to cost between $7.4 billion and $9.3 billion. However, more than a year of delays, new legal challenges, and worker shortages could cause costs to inflate, according to observers.

Read the whole thing and despair.