Stadium builders to city: Come inspect the stadium now

Builders of Tim Horton's Field want the city to come do an inspection so it can declare the stadium substantially completed. 

But the city says that permit may not be issued as quickly as they anticipate.

Ontario Sports Solutions (ONSS) hopes for a visit from the city's compliance consultant this week to get a full occupancy permit, which is one of the requirements for substantial completion. Once the stadium is substantially completed, Infrastructure Ontario (IO) will hand the $145-million building over to the city.

"Ontario Sports Solutions anticipates an inspection this week toward a building occupancy permit," IO spokesperson Terence Foran said. "An occupancy permit is one of the requirements to achieve substantial completion."

When the permit comes, it will mark an end to a long process that was supposed to wrap up last summer. IO hired ONSS, a consortium of French and Canadian construction companies, to finish the stadium by June 30, 2014. ONSS has missed deadlines since then. The most recent target is the end of February.

The city says it hasn't gotten a request yet, and once it does, it isn't sure it would lead to a full occupancy permit, a city spokesperson said.

If there is a request, "we believe it would be more of an ‘update’ inspection to check on work that is in progress towards the eventual completion of the stadium," city spokesperson Ann Lamanes said in an email.

"We do not anticipate that any inspection requested for this week would result in the granting of a full occupancy permit."

It's about damn time.- Coun. Lloyd Ferguson

The Hamilton Tiger Cats started last season playing at McMaster University. It used the new stadium for the annual Labour Day Classic, although city inspectors worked up until the last minute to approve the partial occupancy permit.

The next major event will be the 2015 Pan Am Games in July, when all of the event's soccer games will be played at the stadium. Organizers already missed a test event because of the incomplete stadium.

The delays have led to frustration from city staff and politicians.

"It's about damn time," said Coun. Lloyd Ferguson of Ancaster, who chairs the Pan Am subcommittee. "They are incredibly late."

Ferguson drove by the site last week and noticed that "there were still a lot of construction workers," he said. 

An occupancy permit would mean a long-awaited pay cheque for ONSS too. The province is holding back $89 million from ONSS until the project is finished.

Correction:

An earlier version of this story attributed Ann Lamanes's quotes to another city spokesperson, Kelly Anderson.