It was supposed to be a sparkling new showpiece for the federal government in the old City of Gatineau, just across the river from Parliament Hill. But instead the 10-storey building -- designed to hold 900 civil servants -- sat empty for almost a year with taxpayers picking up a tab of $575,000 a month for a vacant building.

The company collecting the payments for the empty building is the Montreal based Alexis Nihon Group. In 2002 it won a $99-million contract from Public Works and Government Services Canada to develop the federal complex on Boulevard de la Cite in Gatineau. The company's CEO is also a Liberal Senator -- Paul Massicotte.

Unlike Members of Parliament, there are no rules preventing Senators from bidding on, or obtaining government contracts.

"Remember senators are different than the House of Commons. Senators have had another life and they usually continue with their other life," says Massicotte.

And Massicotte has continued on with his other life since Jean Chretien appointed him to the Senate in June of 2003. It was not an unexpected appointment for the prominent Liberal Party fundraiser in Quebec. Massicotte now divides his time between Alexis Nihon and the Upper Chamber -- and says he sees nothing wrong with senators who are CEOs of companies that may be pursuing government contracts.

Massicotte says his company won the contract because it had the best bid in an open competition.

Alexis Nihon won the contract in February 2002, for a building completion date of December 1, 2003. But the building sat completely empty till the fall of 2004 due to what public works officials say was an "incomplete merger" of the National Library and National Archives. Even now it is only half occupied.

The tale of the empty building -- which will have cost taxpayers $10 million by the time it is fully operational -- makes some critics wonder about planning and priorities in Public Works.

"When the government is gripped by a scandal like Gomery there are all these other things going on and they fly below the radar and nobody sees them," says Conservative MP Monte Solberg. "In the meantime taxpayers get taken for millions of dollars."

Public Works Minister Scott Brison dismisses those criticisms. When asked why taxpayers paid for an empty building for almost a year, he said: "My information is that everything is on track. And as you know, we are pursuing a review of real property strategy. And I would encourage you to watch in the coming months because it's very exciting what we are doing."

In other words, Brison acknowledges there is a need to review Ottawa's real estate investments. His department recently found that Ottawa pays 20 per cent too much for its holdings.

The government spends $1.7 billion a year on office space and as recently as December 2002, the Auditor General slammed Public Works for shoddy planning.

"Two previous audits recommended the Branch improve its long-term planning," said Auditor General Sheila Fraser. "Frankly, given the long standing issue of proper planning, we would have expected the Branch to have moved faster in correcting it."

If Public Works has improved its long-term planning, the evidence is not apparent in the management of the $99-million Gatineau complex. The building won't be fully occupied till July, more than a year and a half after it opened. Then -- and only then -- will taxpayers get full value for their hard-earned dollars.

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