In what city councillor Doug Graham described as 'ridiculous,' the estimated costs for janitorial services for the Canada Games Centre have ballooned by more than $200,000.

The original estimate for janitorial service costs was $132,150. That's a full $200,000 lower than the lowest acceptable bid of $336,000 received by the city in the tendering process.

Speaking at Monday night's council meeting, Graham said everyone knew the bid 'was ridiculous at the time' it was released. He asked city administrators where the new money would come from.

The original estimate was calculated by consulting firm Randall Conrad and Associates Ltd.

'Tell me where we're going to come up with the extra $200,000, I'm really curious,' Graham said.

He also seemed frustrated that there appeared to be no recycling plans for the Canada Games Centre which he said was part of the agreement with Whitehorse receiving the 2007 Canada Winter Games.

In a combined effort, multiplex supervisor Bernie Van Hoof and parks and recreation manager Linda Rapp explained to council what happened.

Van Hoof told council that cost overruns were largely due to labour costs, with Yukon labour costs significantly higher than those in southern Canada.

Rapp said city officials 'were not positive' where the extra money would come from, but that sponsorships could be an option.

She also said city officials were hopeful Whitehorse would live up to its environmental commitments at the Canada Games.

'We certainly hope that we can include a green component (in the centre),' Rapp said.

The tender package for the 2005 Canada Games Centre janitorial contracts became available on April 18.

As of the process's closing date, May 5, the city received a total of five bids.

Millennium Janitorial Services bid $408,000, Philkon Janitorial Services bid $178,560, Filipina Cleaners bid $336,000, M.D. Janitorial bid $623,000 and Dave's Cleaning Service bid $462,000.

Philkon later removed their bid after it was determined its calculations were off and it didn't have the manpower to do the job.

Rapp recommended to council that Filipina Cleaners should be awarded the contract as the next-lowest bidder.

Randall Conrad, president of Randall Conrad and Associates Ltd., said today he was very surprised to hear that the winning bid was 'three times' what his company estimated, but added the cost of labour and materials has risen since he completed the report nearly three years ago.

'In terms of janitorial costs, we applied a cost-per-square-foot based at what was being paid at other facilities (such as city hall),' he said in an interview.

He said he was in close contact with city officials, including Rapp, during the whole process and frequently relied on their knowledge of the Whitehorse economic environment.

'We used plain old logic to do that and everybody seemed OK with that.

'We made sure the client understood (the process).'

Conrad added that frequent design changes of the Canada Games Centre would make it hard to maintain cost estimates for contractors. He questioned whether the winning bid included valued-added components not included in the original estimates.