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An Israeli bird sanctuary named after Stephen Harper is more than a year behind schedule after running into a series of escalating cost overruns.

“The delays are disappointing but we have been told the new completion date is summer 2019,” wrote Conservative Senator Linda Frum in a message to the National Post.

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Together with her husband Howard Sokolowski, Frum helped to spearhead the gathering of Canadian donations for the project in 2013. Next week, she is travelling to Israel to personally inspect the state of construction.

“We feel a personal responsibility to see the project completed and well executed,” she said.

Photo by JNF Canada

The project’s full name is the Stephen J. Harper Hula Valley Bird Sanctuary, Visitor and Education Centre.

Initially, the facility was supposed to be funded almost entirely by $5.7 million raised at a 2013 fundraiser for then-prime minister Harper.

Organized by the Canadian branch of the Jewish National Fund, at the time it was cited as the most successful fundraising campaign in the group’s history.