Canada's Nova Scotia province has had to postpone to end January a plan to study the social and economic impact of gambling in the province.  The Environment and Labour Department in the provincial government said that it has experienced some difficulty in hiring an appropriate research company for the task, which carries a budget of up to C$250 000. 

Apparently the Department first asked for proposals in August, but achieved only one response from Market Quest Research. Provincial government spokesman Bill Turpin said last week that the response didn’t meet the department’s requirements, but would not give any further details.

Turpin said department officials were disappointed there weren’t more bids, despite having contacted other companies they expected would have applied.  They were told August was bad timing, and the month deadline for a response was too short.This resulted in the Department postponing the study in order to give potential bidders more than two months to get their bids ready.  

The new deadline is January 30, and the province hopes the study will result in groundbreaking research into gambling and its effects.