Ron Eastern Construction Ltd.
(RECL) is overseeing the project as
construction manager, says OCA pres-
ident John DeVries. RECL “has as-
sisted us through the process of
architect and engineer selection under
a CM (Construction Management) con-
tract.” McRobie Architects has de-
signed the renovated structure.
“The renovations have started this
past week (in early January), with the
second phase of the interior demoli-
tion,” DeVries says. “Contracts with all
the sub-trades are being concluded
this week following trade tender pro-
cess in November.”
The OCA says it will have 3,790 sq.
ft. of tenant space available for lease
when the building opens on July 1.
QUEBEC The Hewitt Group
completes the sale of its
business to Toromont
Industries The Hewitt Group based in Pointe
Claire says that it has completed the
sale of its business to Toromont Indus-
tries. “Over the last 65 years in the case
of Hewitt Equipment and 90 years in
the case of Atlantic, successive gener-
ations of dedicated team members
have made huge contributions as our
customers have shaped and built our
infrastructures and economies across
Québec and Eastern Canada,” said Jim
Hewitt, chairman and CEO of Hewitt
Equipment. The announcement says the organi-
zation will become part of an extensive
Canadian network covering Central
and Eastern Canada and Nunavut.
Company employees will continue to
support customers through the enter-
prise’s combined branch facilities with
high quality products, talented work-
forces, as well as the expertise of both
companies, Hewitt says in its news re-
lease. TV station apologizes for
false mosque construction
worker discrimination report
A TV station has apologized for and
retracted its story that a mosque asked
for female construction workers to be
excluded from a worksite.
TVA had originally reported that the
Ahl-Ill-Bait mosque in Cote des Neiges
had asked for women to be removed
from a construction site near their
place of worship — however there
never was any such request, CTV news
says. As soon as the report was issued,
the leaders of the mosque said that no-
body had ever made such a request,
and said the only thing it had asked for
was that people be able to park near
the mosque on Fridays.
Mosque representatives said that
they would never ask for women to be
banned from a worksite.
TVA stood by its story about the
banning of women for several days,
even saying that this clause was writ-
ten in the contract, but was never able
to prove any such clause existed – nor
that any women were actually re-
moved from the worksite.
Diane Lemieux, president of Que-
bec’s construction commission, said
investigators had examined the con-
tracts and talked to the mosque, as
well as the construction workers at the
site, and found no evidence for any-
thing that TVA had claimed.
“There is no indication, no sign, ab-
solutely no sign that would lead us to
believe that anyone from the mosques
asked for this,” CTV quoted Lemieux
as saying. “There is no such clause in
the contract indicating that women
should be removed.”
Since the story aired, the mosque
said it’s been flooded with hateful
comments and threats. “It’s baseless
accusations that happened, and we
have women, we have children who go
to this place, we have never had any
problem,” said Boshra Garawi. “This
escalates more the hate and the opin-
ion against Muslims.”
The story prompted a white nation-
alist group to schedule a protest out-
side the mosque – a protest which the
group later cancelled, with members
saying they felt they had been deliber-
ately deceived.
TVA eventually issued a retraction,
indicating that the situation had
“evolved,” and the next day issued a
second retraction, stating that it “re-
grets the situation and wishes to apol-
ogize to the various parties and
viewers who have been affected by
this report.”
NEW BRUNSWICK
Moncton approves
120-room Hyatt Hotel
development plan
Moncton council has approved the
$3 million sale of a piece of prime
downtown real estate to the Corey
Craig Group to be developed as a 120-
room Hyatt Hotel, costing about $17
million. Craig O’Neill, president and CEO of
Corey Craig Group, told the CBC that
the purchase has been in the works for
about two years. “Construction is
going to start in the spring of 2018,
with an 18-month window so we
should be able to turn that around by
early 2020.”
O’Neill owns 37 Tim Hortons restau-
rants across southeastern New
Brunswick. His company also owns
Wendy’s outlets and the Holiday Inn
Express, near Greater Moncton Roméo
LeBlanc International Airport.
Rice Contracting Ltd. of Moncton
will build the structure and Architects
Four Limited are providing the planning
and design work. The downtown cen-
tre is scheduled to be finished in
September. The Canadian Design and Construction Report — Winter 2018 – 35