Just two months before city staff penned a report saying that “Deferred recapitalization for the [Khyber] building is estimated to be $4,150,945,” a consultant hired to assess the building pegged the costs of stabilizing the building at just under $2 million.
The city staff report to council, dated March 26, 2013, contained this infographic about the Khyber:
But in a report dated January 2013, Capital Management Engineering Limited assessed the present-day condition of the building and recommended expenditures for building renovation and energy savings, summed up in this chart:
The Capital Management Engineering Limited is detailed, giving cash flow and expenditure projections for the Khyber for a period of 25 years.
So far as I can determine, the report was never given to council and has never before been released to the public. You can read the Khyber renovation report here.
My experience working on reports for Halifax city staff: they’ll nudge their ostensibly objective consultant toward the conclusion they want in a report, or will just bury a report that doesn’t align with their objectives.