A recent book on big projects that go bad has uncomfortably many examples from Canada. We need to downsize ambitions, processes and costs
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Last year co-authors Bent Flyvbjerg, a Danish professor of economic geography specializing in megaprojects, and the Canadian journalist Dan Gardner published How Big Things Get Done. In it they investigate what they coin the “iron law of megaprojects,” which is that such projects routinely come in well over budget, far past projected deadlines and without delivering projected benefits.
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Unfortunately for taxpayers, the book contains many examples of Canadian megaprojects that have obeyed this “law.” The federal government’s infamous firearms registry, which ended up 590 per cent over budget, is a textbook template for how IT projects can go terribly wrong. The Muskrat Falls hydro project in Newfoundland is a classic demonstration of what happens when a firm with little direct experience is hired to manage a large, complex project. Most famously, the 1976 Montreal Games wins the title for the largest cost overrun in Olympic history, finishing 720 per cent over budget. The authors suggest Montreal’s “Big Owe” stadium “should be considered the unofficial........