Civic Centre facelift falls behind schedule

The $6.9-million window and cladding replacement project at Sault Ste. Marie's Civic Centre isn't going to meet its planned completion date of June, 2019.

"It is a bit behind schedule right now," concedes Don Elliot, the city's director of engineering services.

The work's about two months behind schedule and won't be finished until next summer or early fall, Elliott tells SooToday.

The general contractor, Cy Rheault Construction Ltd. of Timmins, still hasn't finalized shop drawings for the exterior curtain walls, he says.

It's the general contractor's responsibility to complete the drawings, although the work is often delegated to subcontractors.

Until the final drawings are submitted, the needed materials can't be ordered, Elliott says.

The high-profile project involves surrounding the building with a new white curtain wall, then pulling the old brown cladding and windows inside, removing them down the elevator.

Insulation has been applied to the building's exterior to prevent excessive heat loss through the winter months.

"The primary purpose for reconstruction is to protect the existing 45-year-old structure from further degradation," the city said in a news release issued when the work began in June.

"Under the 2015 asset management plan, the replacement of the exterior metal panels and windows on the Civic Centre was identified as a priority," the statement said.

A feasibility study found major issues with the building:

• metal panel support deterioration
• air and water barrier deficiencies and penetration
• an inability to source new windows of the same color as the existing windows
• numerous seal failures in insulated windows

The feasibility study urged full replacement of the building's exterior panels and windows as soon as possible, no later than 2018.

The project is being financed using long-term debt and won't incrementally increase the tax levy, city officials say.

In September, members of the Labourer’s International Union of North America (LIUNA) Local 1036 set up a picket line at the Civic Centre, complaining that Rheault wasn't using union labourers even though it was required to do so under a 1987 Labour Relations Board ruling that designated the city a construction employer.

Last month, Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative government proposed changes to Ontario's Labour Relations Act, declaring municipalities to be non-construction employers.