The Newfoundland and Labrador government says its purchase of four custom-built Victorian-era sofas for more than $136,000 is part of a project that will attract tourism dollars. He could be right – people may be intrigued enough to want a look at the costly couches.

Tourism Minister Steve Crocker says he agrees that at first blush, the $136,265 price tag for the four Bourne chairs seems high, but he says they’re part of a $22-million overhaul of the Colonial Building in St. John’s.

Crocker said in an interview Monday the renovations began in 2009 and the building is on track to open for this summer’s tourism season as a public museum and historic site.

The Colonial Building first opened in 1850 and was home to the government of Newfoundland before the province entered Confederation in 1949.

“This is not something you can go to a furniture store and buy. These are things that have to be created,” Crocker said.

Government staff should be applauded for keeping the whole project within budget, rather than be criticized for contracting a local company to custom build the historical sofas said the Tourism Minister.

He says the Bourne chairs are circular chairs with a diameter of about 2.4 metres and a back rest 1.2-metres high, adding that each one can sit up to 10 people.

Progressive Conservative tourism critic Craig Pardy said he does not object to the $22-million renovation project to turn the historic Colonial Building in St. John’s into a public museum and tourist attraction. “I know it’s a huge part of our history,” Pardy said.

But spending $136,265 for four sofas inside the restored building is excessive when many in the province are struggling, he said, “I don’t think that’s a wise expenditure … and I would suggest that they ought not to have been purchased.”