What you can buy with $700K, and why the Mordecai Richler gazebo took so long

Nearly 15 years after the deathof Mile End's most famous writer and social criticand five years after the project was announcedwork on theMordecai Richlergazebo in Montreal's Mount Royal Park was quietly completed this week.

The refurbishment of the decaying bandstandto honour the Montreal-born author was first announced in 2011and began in 2015.

• MordecaiRichlergazebo finally finished

The final price tag of more than $700,000 has left many wondering how fixing itcould have cost that much and what else the money could have been spent on?

How the cost ballooned

After debating for years about how to best honour Richler, a controversial figure for his biting satire that wasoften aimed at Quebec nationalists, the city settled on the gazebo and later, the Mile End library.

The total cost of the project waspeggedat $379,000 by thecity'sexecutive committee in 2014. It endedup costing nearly double that amount,$724,000.

Part of the problem was that the bandstand, built in 1928, ended up being in worse shape than originally thought, according to the city.

Ral Mnard, the city's executive committee member overseeing the project,said there were a number of unexpected developments, including lead detected in the paint and more mould than expected, so that the heritage structure had to be redone,nearly top to bottom.

Mnardacknowledged the high price tag doesn't sit well with residents.

"I can well understand Montrealers, but at the same time we have responsibilities to preserve the heritage [of the structure]," he told Radio-Canada in May.

A request for comment from Mayor Denis Coderre's office was not returned.

Here are some other items thatcould have been bought with $700,000.

103 gazebos at Home Depot

Home Depot's "Bayside 12 ft. Octagon Panelized Gazebo,"constructed fromWestern Red Cedar, costs $6,776.61, includingtaxes.

The gazebo comes with a shingled cedar roof and a functional cupola.

161,290 sandwiches fromWilensky's

The Mile End restaurant, immortalized inRichler'snovel The Apprenticeship ofDuddyKravitz,has changed very littlesince he lived in the neighbourhood.

The eponymousWilensky'sSpecial, abeef salami and bologna on kaiser roll, nowgoes for $4.34.

Air conditioning for 23 STMbuses

The STM has committed to making Montrealers'commute cooler. Last year, it announced plans to add air conditioning to some of its fleet of buses.

Installing air conditioningis pegged at around$30,000 per bus.

Ceiling repairsat 1high school gym

Last year, a teacher atLouis JosephPapineauHigh Schoolin Montreal's St-Michel neighbourhood pleaded for help to repair the crumbling ceiling at his school.

He made a 22-minute video documenting the decay.The school board estimated the repairs would cost as much as$800,000.

1NDG Duplex

Theasking price for a duplex on Wilson StreetinNotre-Dame-de-Grceis$729,000.

The property is billed as a "charming, well-maintained duplex" owned for more than50 years by the same family.

31,818 copies of Barney's Version

Richler's acclaimed novel, winner of the Giller Prize in 1997,retails for $22 at Indigo. It was later turned into a movie starring PaulGiamatti.