City blames contractor for Civic Centre delay

The City of Winnipeg is defending itself against a contractor in a lawsuit over the long-delayed renovations of the St. James Civic Centre.

The city-owned Ness Avenue facility, which features an indoor hockey arena, swimming pool, auditorium, weight room and other community-accessible spaces, was closed in April 2020 for major work originally slated to take just over a year.

It took until September 2022 to reopen. Mayor Scott Gillingham — then-councillor for St. James — blamed the lengthy delays on alleged contractor errors leading to the release of silica dust, sending the particles throughout the facility.

Canotech Consultants Ltd., whose subcontractor was blamed for the dust releases, filed a lawsuit in the Court of King’s Bench last September, accusing the city and one of its employees of relying on shoddy information to stop the work, claiming none of the hazardous dust was actually released.

The civil claim is seeking about $2.6 million in damages and for about $940,000 in fines to be rescinded.

The City of Winnipeg and the employee, in an April 8 statement of defence and counter claim, denied Canotech’s allegations, saying the city followed the construction contract — and best practices about how to respond to the release of concrete dust.

The city, in court papers, stands by its assessments that Canotech caused multiple releases of the dust, breaching the contract and delaying the project, and has asked for the court to turf the lawsuit.

Some of Canotech’s allegations in its initial lawsuit were struck from the claim after a motion from the city.

Inhaled silica dust can cause irreversible damage to the lungs and potentially lead to lung cancer, the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety says.

Canotech says in its filings the alleged releases of silica dust at the arena in 2021 were actually general non-hazardous construction dust produced by other contractors working on a different project on behalf of the city.

The dust caused lengthy delays and significantly increased costs for the construction firm, according to the initial claim. The construction company claimed it retained its own consultant that tested the dust, finding no silica.

The city, in its filings, claims the dust did include silica, or that it was reasonable to assume it did, justifying reasonable and mandated delays out of safety concerns.

The first concrete dust release occurred during sandblasting in a crawlspace in July 2021, the city said, raising a risk that airborne silica had been released throughout the property. Canotech claimed the city’s project administrator unilaterally ordered the sandblasting to cease, which the city denies.

“At all material times, all the city’s decisions were made in accordance with the contract and all applicable laws,” the city’s document reads.

Provincial workplace safety officials ordered Canotech to implement dust and silica control measures and clean up the centre. The city then retained an environmental consultant, which said it was “reasonable to assume the dust generated from the sandblasting contained silica” and gave recommendations about cleanup, said the city’s court papers.

Canotech claimed the sandblasting medium it used did not contain silica. The city’s consultant claimed it was silica-based.

The city’s consultant then reassessed that recommendation, finding the material only contained a small amount of silica, but noted concrete itself contains silica, so the release of any concrete material could lead to the reasonable conclusion that silica was released.

The work on the crawlspace was stopped until October 2021, when Canotech’s subcontractor again began work, before more dust was released in November. Canotech alleged the dust was released by other contractors. The city’s court documents said it was Canotech and its subcontractors that caused the release of dust. Work was again stopped, with provincial officials issuing another improvement order.

The city said the claim as a whole is an “impermissible collateral attack” on the provincial work improvement orders.

In its counter claim, the city is seeking damages from Canotech for contract breaches for allegedly causing the dust releases and project delays, as well as the company’s alleged negligence.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca