Last month, the Progressive Conservative government cancelled the province's plan to host the games, citing last year's forecast of the games costing $130 million, more than seven times the original estimate.

Premier Blaine Higgs announced the decision days after the organizing committee for the games offered the province a new, dramatically reduced cost estimate of $62 million.

Higgs said given the various figures that had been made public, he wasn't confident the revised number would stick.

Roy made her comments in response to questions from PC committee member Glen Savoie, the MLA for Saint John East, who called the subject "a tough one. It's sensitive."

Savoie said it was too bad that the province "missed a chance to have New Brunswick as the centre of the francophone universe during the time of the games," but the costs would be "difficult to rationalize" given the province's finances.

Roy's appearance was the first time since the issue flared up in December that a senior civil servant has given an account of the games timeline.
She said without expert help from Sport Canada, the local bid committee put together its submission by asking the International Organization of La Francophonie "if they had any numbers for costs for previous games."

That template led to the $17-million estimate, she said. Sherbrooke, which hosted the Canada Games in 2013 and which has a municipal office devoted to organizing sports events, bid $52 million.

Once New Brunswick won the games, Roy said, the bid committee was transformed into an organizing committee that developed the business plan. It submitted the plan, with the $130 million figure, to the province last spring.

In an interview with Brunswick News this week, former premier Brian Gallant complained that media reports had focused on the higher figure even though it was "just a submission" and was "never going to be the cost" because his government had refused the figure.

But Roy told the committee Friday that a consultant hired by Sport Canada to evaluate the organizing committee's proposal said it was in the ballpark.

"The evaluation basically came back and said, 'Yeah, that's about right for this scale of international event,'" she said.

That report said the games could be mounted for $115 million, and even lower costs were possible if some elements were cut, Roy said. The report, obtained by Radio-Canada, also said a significantly lower cost would lower the quality of the event.
But she told the MLAs that the Francophonie also has a "very formal process" with clear requirements for "what you need to deliver on" when hosting the games.

"It's really quite unfortunate, but that was the process," she said.

Savoie used the discussion to send a message to francophones that despite the cancellation, the new PC government was sensitive to their language and culture.

"It's important for people to know that we value the francophone culture," he said, speaking in French.

During an earlier discussion about tourism sites, Savoie told Roy that his great-great-great-great-great grandfather built the Maison Savoie, which now stands at the Village Historique Acadien near Caraquet.

"I hope in the future we have the chance to show the heart and the spirit of the francophonie here in New Brunswick," he said.

Roy said Tourism, Heritage and Culture was not the lead department on the games. That was Intergovernmental Affairs, which hasn't appeared at the public accounts committee since the games controversy broke out.

She said her department hadn't spent any money on the games but had sent two employees to the 2017 Francophonie Games in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

Asked if she had a role in internal discussions about the games, she said her officials briefed the new PC government on the timeline of the bid, the costs and the potential spinoffs, including the impact on sport and cultural programs.

"It was a good opportunity to develop more of that capacity in the province," she said. But she added that the department's role was to advise the government and let elected officials make the decision.

Roy also told Liberal MLA Cathy Rogers that some of the funding that might have gone to the games could be shifted to other programs with that mandate.

"There are conversations about that right now," she said. "We're definitely having conversations about what we might do to support our sport and cultural industries in light of that decision."