Canada and British Columbia shared a $6-million log pavilion in Turin during the 2006 Winter Olympic Games. Canada and British Columbia shared a $6-million log pavilion in Turin during the 2006 Winter Olympic Games. (CBC)

The Canadian government is defending its decision to hire a U.S. company to build the Canadian Olympic pavilion in downtown Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Giltspur Exhibits now has about 70 days to build the exhibit that will tell Canada's story to the world, showcasing the country's culture, heritage and industries when the Games open on Feb. 12.

Gary Lunn, Canada's Minister of State for Sport, defended the move, saying the government followed all the rules as set out by the Treasury Board of Canada and the Chicago-based company won the $9.2 million contract after a fair and open bidding process.

'Why did they wait until November to even put the contract out for bid?'— Liberal MP Joyce Murray

"They won the contract fair and square and Canada will have a fantastic pavilion," said Lunn, MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands.

But federal Liberals have criticized the move, saying the bidding was only open for two weeks and the project had an extremely tight timeline, which discouraged Canadian companies from bidding.

Liberal MP Joyce Murray questioned why the government rolled out the contract on such a tight timeline.

"Given four years to prepare for Canada's pavilion at Canada's games, hosted in Canada, why did they wait until November to even put the contract out for bid?" she said.

"The industry were saying this was crazy," said Murray, MP for Vancouver Quadra.

Canadian workers involved

The federal government first announced it planned to build its own pavilion in late September, after plans to share a pavilion with British Columbia apparently fell through.

Lunn was unable to say if any Canadian companies managed to bid on the project and said the government simply went with the company that offered the most attractive bid.

The minister also noted Canadian workers will be doing much of the work.

"The Canadian pavilion is being built by a company that operates in a number of Canadian cities, by Canadian workers. And if you have Canadian workers building, there's nothing more Canadian than that," Lunn said.