The F.H. Collins Secondary School reconstruction project was re-tendered Wednesday.

The tender will close Dec. 12, and construction is expected to begin in the spring.

The new school is forecast to be completed sometime during the 2015/2016 school year.

Neither geothermal heat nor a temporary gym are included in the latest tender.

Kendra Black is a spokesperson for the Department of Highways and Public Works. Given the new location for the school reconstruction and the proximity to the well, she said Wednesday, more research is needed to determine the viability of geothermal heat.

That research will be conducted during the construction process.

But the school will be built to allow for the future potential addition of geothermal heat.

The previous need for the temporary gym was avoided, given the new construction plan and location.

EllisDon Corp. and Ketza Construction submitted the lowest bid for the project during the original tendering process.

The Yukon government rejected the bid last spring, saying it was too far over-budget.

Last March, following the government's announcement that it was abandoning the original design, Michael Kazda, the vice-president and Edmonton-area manager of EllisDon, said adjustments could have been made to the $3.5-million design to bring the estimated cost closer to the government's defined budget.

"Several million could be saved simply by deleting the geothermal system and changing the school layout to avoid the requirement for a temporary gym,” he told the Star at the time.

Regardless of the outcome the first time around, Ketza and EllisDon will submit a joint bid on the new tender.

Kazda said Wednesday they have already started work on their new bid.

"We hope to work with some of our local contractors to put forward a very competitive bid that's going to also be respectful of the local economy,” he said.

New information unveiled last week by the Yukon News suggests the government likely knew the bids for the original tender would exceed its $38.6-million budget when it added the requirements for a temporary gym and

geothermal heat – additions no longer included in the project.

Estimates the paper obtained through the access-to-information process show that BTY estimated the project would cost $43.7 million with the additions.

That constituted an increase of $3.6 million over its $40.1-million estimate for the project without the temporary gym and the geothermal heat.

Hanscomb Ltd.'s estimate for the original tender, without the additions, was $38.6 million.

The government did not increase the budget for the project regardless of the estimated higher cost burden to add geothermal heat and a temporary gym.

"Why did the Yukon Party interfere with the good work of the department by instructing them to use estimates that did not consider changes to the project that the-then minister of Education promised in the legislature?” Sandy Silver, the interim leader of the Liberal party, asked during an interview Wednesday.

It's a question Yukoners can expect to hear in various iterations during question periods over the next six weeks. MLAs began their fall sitting of the legislature early this afternoon.

"What this government does, they work in a silo, and they came out with a decision we don't want to build this school, find a way not to build this school,” said Silver. "That's what it looks like.”

Black said the contingencies must be removed from the independent estimates to compare them fairly to the government's $38.6-million budget, which does not include its contingency fund.

Without the contingency, Hanscomb's original estimate was $36.8 million and BTY's was $37.8 million.

BTY's second estimate, including the temporary gym and geothermal system, was $41.6 million – still higher than the government's budget, which was not adjusted.

Ketza's and EllisDon's bid came in at $47.78 million, and did not include a contingency.

Kazda preferred not to comment on the government's decision to leave the budget at $38.6 million when adjusting the tender to include the geothermal heat and temporary gym.

"I respect the fact that governments have budgets that they need to meet, and I understand that this process was necessary to help them to meet those

budgets,” he said.

Jim Tredger, the NDP's Education critic, said today many questions are left to be answered about the project, including why a $900,000 contract to re-design the imported design from Alberta was sole-sourced.

There are questions about the design itself as well. Tredger cited rumours that the new building won't be able to accommodate current programming at the school, and certainly not any program expansions.

"There are questions around why the original plan was discarded in such haste,” said the former educator.

"Between $6 million and $10 million was spent designing that school,” Tredger said.

"It had public input, it had student input, it had staff input, and there was a lot of excitement,” he said.

The New Democrat highlighted a caveat in the tender that requests experience in building three similar projects in the last five years.

"It excludes much, if not all, of the Yukon contracting community,” he said.

"It's just reprehensible, the way this whole project has been handled.”

The Star's requests to speak with Highways and Public Works Minister Wade Istchenko on the subject were refused and directed to the department.

The current school opened 50 years ago.