City issues stop-work order for Canada Olympic Park

An expansion of the ski hill at Canada Olympic Park has been halted by a stop-work order from the City of Calgary.

Although tonnes of dirt have been dumped at the site, city officials discovered that Winsport does not have a permit for the expansion. The discovery was made after the city wrapped up an investigation based on a complaint from the public.

Ian Cope with the city's planning department says Winsport has been directed to apply for a permit before work can resume.

"At that point in time, we did issue a stop-order, ensuring no further work occurred within that area," Cope explained. "They have applied for the development permit — it is under review as we speak and we are working with COP to make sure that it gets taken care of in as quick and efficient manner as possible."

Dale Oviatt, a spokesperson for WinSport, says the problem should be resolved soon.

"It's a misunderstanding in terms of the permitting between us and the city," Oviatt said. 

"We're working really close with the city and the city's been great in trying to work this out and get it as quick as possible. Really it comes down to, we have permits in place, but they weren't probably the right permits that we needed for this project."

Once the building permit is in place, Oviatt says there are only about 10 more construction days to go in order to finish the project which has been in the works for two years and was originally supposed to open last winter.