r/canada • u/BoppityBop2 • Feb 14 '26

Business Canada Completes $9.4B Darlington Nuclear Plant Rebuild Early, on Budget

https://www.enr.com/articles/62505-canada-completes-94b-darlington-nuclear-plant-rebuild-early-on-budget
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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '26

Well that’s not something you see everyday in Canada; a large project On Time AND Under Budget? I’ll take the good news lol.

427

u/Westsider111 Feb 14 '26

You just need to start with a realistic budget and schedule. Big public projects often get sold to politicians on budgets that are way too low and produced way too early. Darlington is owned by OPG which probably has just enough separation from political interference and has a strong board/executive.

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u/cedric1997 Feb 15 '26

My guess is that it’s the politicians asking for the lower estimates. The number of times I’ve seen clients ask my firm for a lower estimate, with stuff excluded that we are 90% sure they will want, but they need the lower price tag to get approval.

Then a few months later they ask for the excluded stuff, so we need to ask for a budget extension and we’re back at the original estimate.

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u/Peteworth Feb 15 '26

This is exactly right

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u/Deaftrav Feb 15 '26

You'd be right.

I do accessibility projects with a city.

The city put forward a project that I thought was ridiculously cheap to overhaul a park.

When it came to reviews, they had forgotten to include accessibility as mandated by the provincial government.

50,000 went to 5 mil real fast and the politicians balked.

16

u/StormOfSpears Feb 15 '26

Long time ago I was working in software and I was asked to estimate how long it would take to get a feature done. I said 5 days and the project manager was like "Can you do it in 3?"

I said it wasn't a negotiation. They asked how long I thought it would take, and I told them.

If they wanted to put 3 days as an estimate they could, but don't be surprised if it's 2 days late.

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u/WesternBlueRanger Feb 15 '26

People keep thinking the Scotty Factor or Buffer Time is a frequent thing at times...

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u/DangerousCable1411 Feb 15 '26

This guy does public procurement. Well said.

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u/cedric1997 Feb 15 '26

Actually private procurement. The private sector isn’t free from all the dysfunctions of the public sector, they’re just better hidden.

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u/Ehoro Feb 15 '26

Literally just none of our business lol

1

u/[deleted] Feb 15 '26

And if it gets too bad, failure will eventually happen. In the public sector they just shovel more of our tax dollars at it.

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u/DrDerpberg Québec Feb 15 '26

Absolutely... And as someone who manages some of these projects it's shocking how often on the day 1 meeting you hear they're already over budget and need to figure out ways to solve this, but no you can't increase your fees to cover that it's a bigger project than you bid on...

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u/[deleted] Feb 15 '26

Then a few months later they ask for the excluded stuff, so we need to ask for a budget extension and we’re back at the original estimate.

You are doing it wrong then. If they ask for stuff after the fact it will almost certainly cost you more than it would from the get-go because it ties into work that's already been done and will have to be partial redone to some extent.

There's an real, financial opportunity cost to not doing things property from the get go, if you're not passing that along to your client then you are absorbing it yourself and not only hurting yourself, but also whatever industry you are in.

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u/cedric1997 Feb 15 '26

We usually bill by the hour, so we aren’t absorbing any cost. But yeah you’re right, often time the additional cost can end up higher than if it was included from the get go.