The City of Moncton is spending $160,000 to hire a consultant for another study on the future of an RCMP building.

A different consultant performed a similar study in 2007 at a cost of $100,000. But that study was awarded to a consultant without any competitive bidding.

Don MacLellan, the City of Moncton’s general manager of community safety services, said the 2007 study was commissioned because the city felt it was time for renovations and the police commission wanted a new building.

"The building is outdated and very crowded. we don't even have our 911 there — that's over in Dieppe in a different building," said Nick Leblanc, the chair of the police commission .

The 2007 report came back with three options — but those only dealt with either renovating or expanding the existing building.

Estimates for those options ranged from $400,000 for renovations to $9.4 million for a combination of renovations and an addition.

MacLellan said the first report wasn't good enough because it never looked at the option of an entirely new building, though at the time, a new building was roughly estimated to have cost between $30 and $50 million.

Six years later, that first $100,000 report is still sitting on the shelf.

"We kind of parked the whole question of what we like the building to look like until we knew what we would do with the police force, what it would look like for the future," said MacLellan.

MacLellan said the city was sidetracked by negotiations over whether or not to keep the RCMP.

"At the time it was urgent and the work got done and then other things took priorities," he said.

MacLellan said it's time to revisit the future of the police station.

This time a request for proposals was issued and the winning bid for a study was $160,000.

"I think council and the taxpayers want us to do great due diligence," he said.