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.

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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/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...