Another White Elephant... you say...

Here's another reason why Government should stop trying to be a developer... back in 2002 a leading global technology provider EDS wanted to build a 50,000 square foot call centre in Montague but the Government of the day thought they should split the size and put two smaller centres in PEI, one in Montague and one in Bloomfield.... EDS would have nothing to do with that scheme so the President of EDS flew down to PEI to meet with Premier Binns to appeal to reason and just build the one centre in Montague.... But as usual the Government thought they were smarter and they told EDS to take a hike (so they went to Port Hawkesbury, NS and built a 400 seat centre) and they would find someone else..... Why go with a global leader like EDS when you can make an arse of it yourself... so here we are today with an empty building in Bloomfield and a mini centre in Montague while Port Hawkesbury still has 400+ people working in the centre there... and if you think Bloomfield has a White Elephant then the Atlantic Technology Centre is equal to a "herd of elephants" and costing taxpayers a $1,000,000.00 a year not to mention the $26,000,000.00 it cost to build and unlikely to "fetch" $5,000,000 if it were sold today....
MLA seeks federal tenant for 'white elephant'
Thursday, May 28, 2009
CBC News
Western P.E.I. MLA Pat Murphy says he can't understand why the former Bloomfield call centre is still vacant after five years.
The Alberton-Roseville MLA told CBC News Wednesday he'd like to see what he calls the "white elephant" transformed into office space for the federal government, for something like another GST centre or a passport office.
"I know that we have the brain power here to do those kind of jobs, but it's just a matter of having the opportunity," said Murphy.
"Being the MLA I get approached quite frequently with people that are looking for employment, and asking me if I have any help that I can offer to seek employment."
The 20,000-square-foot building has been vacant since 2004, when the call centre Help Desk Now moved its business to New Brunswick. The Department of Innovation owns the building and continues to pay some operational costs.
Innovation Minister Allan Campbell said the province has been actively trying to find businesses to rent the space for the last five years, and attracting federal interest to the building is an option he'd like to pursue.
"Thirty years ago, did we think we would have the [Department of Veterans Affairs] in Charlottetown; did we think we would have the Tax Centre in Summerside?" said Campbell.
"We need to maybe look a little outside the box here a little bit, and I don't see why it couldn't be possible."
Campbell said he will be meeting with the local MP, Gail Shea, who is also the Island's representative in the cabinet, about possible options.