NEWS BRIEFS
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Social housing project
requires repairs
A Vancouver social housing project
requires $4.5 million in repairs less
than a decade after a local contractor
was paid $8.5 million to construct the
structure. The Vancouver Sun reports that it
isn’t clear about who is responsible
for the deficiencies at the four-storey
Dunbar Apartments, owned by B.C.

Housing. The building has 51 studio
apartments with support services for
people who were homeless or at risk
of becoming homeless.

The provincial agency says said it
had identified “deficiencies with
some of the materials and construc-
tion methods utilized on the exterior
of the building.”
“The scope of work includes a
complete replacement of the brick
veneer and replacement of the metal
cladding panels in some locations
due to inadequate strength of mate-
rial and installation methods,” said a
statement from B.C. Housing
spokeswoman Laura Mathews.

“Crews will also be removing and re-
installing all windows to ensure
proper waterproofing.”
Mechanical upgrades are also un-
derway in the basement parking level
and the balcony drains are being re-
placed, because “water is accumulat-
ing up to the emergency balcony
overflow drains,” Matthews said.

The problems were not caused by
damage by any of the residents, said
Susan Hancock, a spokeswoman for
Coast Mental Health, the charity that
operates the building. No tenants
have been moved during the work,
she said.

Aquila Construction Inc. was
awarded a $8.54 million contract to
build the apartments in 2010, the Sun
reports. Davidson Yuen Simpson Ar-
chitecture was the architect.

Dane Jansen, a partner at the ar-
chitecture firm now known as DYS
Architecture, said B.C. Housing had
not contacted his company about any
deficiencies or repairs as far as he
24 – Spring 2019 — The Canadian Design and Construction Report
CONSTRUCTION ACROSS CANADA
was aware.

Aquila president Derek Bosa said
the first he heard about the Dunbar’s
deficiencies was when The Sun
phoned the company’s offices this
week to inquire. After the Sun pro-
vided B.C. Housing’s description of
the Dunbar Apartments’ deficiencies
to Bosa, he replied by email to say:
“All I can offer is that this issue is
pending further information and dis-
cussions with B.C. Housing.”
ALBERTA Fort Saskatchewan condo-
minium evacuation relates
to disbarred engineer
The Association of Professional
Engineers and Geoscientists of Al-
berta (APEGA) says structural prob-
lems with a condominium in Fort
Saskatchewan, northeast of Edmon-
ton, relate to the work of a former
professional engineer whose permit
had been cancelled in 2004.

APEGA cancelled the engineering
permit for Jacobsen Hage Engineer-
ing,” the organization reported. “This
means the company was no longer
allowed to do any engineering work
in Alberta. In February 2005, Sven
Hage resigned his APEGA licence to
practise, meaning he was no longer
allowed to do any engineering work
in Alberta. These were both due to
unrelated disciplinary findings of un-
skilled practice and unprofessional
conduct involving structural engineer-
ing.” “Due to provisions in the Engineer-
ing and Geoscience Professions Act,
APEGA can take no further action
against Hage. The current legislation
limits investigating complaints to two
years following the cancellation or
resignation of a person’s licence. As
part of APEGA’s legislative review, we
are working with the Government of
Alberta on more than 160 APEGA-rec-
ommended changes to modernize
and strengthen our legislation, includ-
ing the limitation on investigations.”
SASKATCHEWAN Developer seeks
property tax break
Residents of a building in the
Riverview Estates condominiums
were evacuated on Aug. 2 after an
engineering assessment that the
structure is unsafe.

“Upon learning about the evacua-
tion, APEGA contacted the City of
Fort Saskatchewan’s safety codes of-
ficer and its director of protective ser-
vices,” the association said in a
statement. “APEGA confirmed with
the city that the structural engineer-
ing firm and professional engineer on
record for the structural design of the
building were Jacobsen Hage Engi-
neering and Sven Hage. In addition,
APEGA provided the city with the cur-
rent status of the firm and engineer.

“In December 2004, one year after
the condominiums were constructed,
The developer behind a 10-storey
apartment building under construc-
tion in Saskatoon’s Broadway busi-
ness district is seeking a property tax
break worth $788,535.

A City of Saskatoon report esti-
mates the developer’s investment in
the residential-commercial property,
including the land, is $23.5 million,
the Star-Phoenix reports. The devel-



oper plans to build eight stories of
apartments (with 68 units), along with
two storeys of commercial space and
two underground parking levels. The
former Royal Bank site has been va-
cant since the building was demol-
ished in 2016.

A company called 880 Broadway
Holdings Ltd. is listed in the report as
the applicant for a five-year tax abate-
ment, but the project is listed on the
website of Saskatoon-based Baydo
Development Corporation Ltd., the
newspaper reported.

City administration recommends
the tax break be approved under a
program intended to encourage de-
velopment of vacant lots.

The project is expected to be com-
pleted in the spring of 2021 and any
tax abatement would start the follow-
ing year, the report says.

MANITOBA WCA seeks action to
reduce trade barriers
The Winnipeg Construction Asso-
ciation (WCA) says there is a need to
increase efforts in by the next Mani-
toba government to reduce trade bar-
riers. In its newsletter the associations
says: “Specifically, we’d like to see
the next provincial government:
Update to the 2015 version of the
National Building Code. Manitoba is
currently five years behind the rest of
the country; and
Reduce the Limitations of Actions
Act, which is currently twice as long
as the rest of the country.”
WCA vice-chair John Enns outlines
in a video why breaking down trade
barriers is important for the construc-
tion industry.

ONTARIO Bidding process for City of
Toronto construction
projects goes digital on
September 1
On Sept. 1, bidding for projects for
the City of Toronto transitioned to e-
bidding solution SAP Ariba Sourcing.

The city has conducted training
courses for suppliers to become fa-
miliar with the SAP Ariba system in
advance of the change.

Additionally, the city has created
training systems online, for suppliers
to attempt a mock request for pro-
posal, request for tender, and request
for quotation, to make sure they un-
derstand the online process.

Suppliers also need to register on
the SAP Ariba network in advance of
bidding. Transitioning to e-bidding is in-
tended to make the procurement pro-
cess faster and more efficient,
reducing the amount of time it takes
to award a contract. Notification func-
tions within the system allow bidders
to comply with addendums as they
arise, or be made aware of updates
or cancellations of the competitive
process. While bids can be downloaded
and printed through the system, all
bids and proposals must be com-
pleted online.

SAP Ariba is a cloud-based busi-
ness-to-business marketplace. Its
functions allow suppliers to search
opportunities across the network,
and be notified of upcoming opportu-
nities. As proposals transition to the new
online platform, there will undoubt-
edly be some growing pains. For in-
stance, for all bids submitted during
August for solicitations posted on the
existing online call document system,
responses need to completed and
delivered to the physical location at
city hall.

The change to SAP Ariba has been
ongoing since November of 2018.

During the rollout, some opportuni-
ties were posted on the existing sys-
tem, and some on the new. While all
bids and request for proposals sub-
mitted after September 1 will have to
be completed through the SAP Ariba
system, the opportunities document
will still show up on the City of
Toronto Online Call Document page.

Questions regarding solicitations will
also need to be posed through SAP
Ariba. City of Toronto staff that handle
the bidding process will remain con-
stant throughout the transition.

QUEBEC Quebec tribunal rules
against regional hiring
priority clauses
Quebec’s administrative labour tri-
bunal has declared regional hiring pri-
ority clauses in the construction
industry invalid and inoperative, say-
ing they impeded on rights to free-
dom and privacy, the Montreal
Gazette reports.

In a judgement released on Aug.

9, The tribunal sided with l’Associa-
tion de la construction du Québec,
which was supported by l’Associa-
tion des constructeurs de routes et
grands travaux du Québec.

Though the tribunal is invalidating
two articles of the regulation relating
to the hiring and mobility of construc-
tion employees in the province, it’s
suspending its decision until collec-
tive agreements in the construction
industry can be renegotiated, the
Gazette reported.

Current collective agreements are
set to expire on April 30, 2021. The
decision is therefore suspended until
their renewal.

Issues surrounding regional hiring
priority in the construction industry
stem from the demands of regional
workers. They want to be able to
work at construction sites in their
own areas, rather than having a con-
tractor who wins a contract come
with his own workers from another
region. This situation has caused friction
between regional and outside em-
ployees. Judge Raymond Gagnon said in
his decision that employees’ right to
privacy and their freedom to establish
their homes in a place that is conve-
nient to them is being infringed upon.

He also ruled that there’s a restriction
for employers to hire employees they
need based on where they live.

The Canadian Design and Construction Report — Summer/Fall 2019 – 25