Premier defends contract with American company to strip Macdonald Bridge

In spite of earlier pronouncements that Nova Scotia would cancel and avoid contracts with Americans to protest tariffs, Premier Tim Houston says a $70-million contract with an American company for work on a Halifax bridge is necessary for the sake of public safety.

A contract between Halifax Harbour Bridges and Liberty Blastech, announced earlier this week, includes two years of work to strip and repaint the towers of the Macdonald Bridge.

Liberty Blastech is registered in Nova Scotia but its directors are, respectively, the heads of companies in Maryland and Ohio.

Houston told reporters Thursday that the contract was flagged for him earlier this year.

"I was curious to see if there was another way to approach this, and you know, my understanding is that there's not," he said following a cabinet meeting.

"There's not a Nova Scotian company that is able to do this work, and I don't even think there was a Canadian company that was able to do the work." 

In March, when U.S. President Donald Trump launched a trade war with Canada, Houston said American businesses would no longer be allowed to bid on provincial procurements, and the province would seek to cancel existing contracts and reject existing bids.

So far the province has backed away from 11 contracts worth a total of about $130,000.

In the case of the bridge, Houston said it needed special consideration.

"You have to do this job right. There's public safety involved, so you have to make sure that you're dealing with companies that are qualified and able to do the work, and in this case, that's what we were faced with."

He highlighted that the bridge project will source most of its supplies and workers locally.

According to Halifax Harbour Bridges, 95 per cent of supplies will be bought in Nova Scotia and 70 per cent of labourers will be local.

Opposition leader Claudia Chender said the province should take a lesson from this.

"I think we could be partnering with local construction companies and others in different ways to build that capacity so that the next time we have a procurement like that, we do have that expertise," Chender said.

She said it's "great" that a large part of the workforce will be Nova Scotian, but she wouldn't expect any different. She said that does not qualify the company as Nova Scotian. 

Chender called for more details from the province about how it will define a company as Nova Scotian in light of its commitment to limit procurement with Americans.

When asked whether the government has developed any rules or guidelines for American bidders, Public Works Minister Fred Tilley said each project and contract will be considered differently.

Liberal MLA Iain Rankin said he took Houston at his word that Liberty Blastech was the only qualified company. But, like Chender, he said the province should do more to make large contracts such as this one accessible for local companies