OTTAWA - The federal government has rejected a B.C. bid for additional funds to cover cost overruns involving the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre expansion project, a senior B.C. official confirmed Tuesday.

Ken Dobell, chairman of the B.C. Crown corporation running the $615-million expansion, said he made his pitch last week to Louis Ranger, head of Infrastructure Canada.

"Mr. Ranger said that the available infrastructure funding for British Columbia was exhausted, and that there was nothing available," Dobell, who retired as Premier Gordon Campbell's deputy minister last year, told The Vancouver Sun.

Dobell said he made the request during a last-minute meeting with Ranger while in Ottawa as Campbell's special adviser to discuss the softwood lumber agreement with federal officials.

He said any new federal money would offset the province's $50-million contribution, announced last September, to cover new costs that bring the total project costs to $615 million.

He said he told Ranger the project, intended to triple the centre's capacity and allow it to serve as the international broadcast centre for the 2010 Olympics, was suffering due to inflationary costs in the construction industry.

"He said, 'Yes, you and everybody else,'" according to Dobell.

The B.C. and federal governments had originally committed identical amounts for the project. But the B.C. contribution has risen to $272.5 million, compared to a $222.5 contribution from the federal government, $90 million from Tourism Vancouver and $30 million to be generated in commercial revenue.

© The Vancouver Sun 2006