Contractor sues city for $3.5M over St. James Civic Centre silica contamination allegations

A Winnipeg company is suing the city for $3.5 million after the city stopped work at the St. James Civic Centre and fined the construction firm for silica sand contamination — contamination the company says it didn't cause.

Canotech Consultants filed a statement of claim in Court of King's Bench this month against the city and one of its contract administrators over more than one work stoppage order at the Ness Avenue community centre in 2021. 

"The silica allegations caused material disruptions, unnecessary and lengthy delays, extremely difficult working conditions, changes in soil conditions, and unreasonable expenses in pursuing the work, services and materials," the lawsuit says.

Canotech is seeking $2.6 million from the city for the work it did at the community centre, plus a $940,000 refund of fines it paid the city after the city said subcontractor Carlson Commercial & Industrial Services was responsible for silica and dust contamination.

None of the allegations have been proven in court. CBC News requested a response from the city but did not immediately hear back.

Built in 1967, the civic centre includes an arena, pool, gym and auditorium.

Manitoba, Canadian and municipal governments committed $14 million for expansion and upgrades in 2021.

Earlier that year, the city hired Canotech to do work in the crawl space beneath the arena that included concrete restoration, crawl space grading and mechanical work. Canotech subcontracted out some of the job to Carlson Commercial & Industrial Services.

Carlson workers began sandblasting concrete in the crawl space in July 2021 using a compound called Black Magic. Canotech says Black Magic doesn't contain silica, which poses health hazards at certain levels.

Less than an hour after sandblasting began, a city contract administrator "suddenly and unilaterally" ordered workers to stop, the lawsuit says. She alleged silica dust escaped and contaminated spaces in the civic centre.

Canotech says "construction dust" came not from them or subcontractor Carlson, which wasn't using silica substances, but from activity from an unrelated construction project occurring simultaneously at the civic centre.

Canotech claims the city contract administrator on the other project is the one who intervened in the sandblasting work, despite having no authority to do so. A different contract administrator appointed to be the city point person overseeing the crawl space work did not get involved, the lawsuit says.

That intervention represented a contract breach, Canotech claims.

City hires investigator

The city hired consultant Pinchin Ltd. to investigate the alleged silica contamination. The lawsuit alleges Pinchin tested substances on site but didn't rely on the measurements in its assessment. 

Pinchin wrote "with the known release of the silicate based sandblasting media, it is reasonable to assume that a certain percentage of the readings contained silica," the lawsuit says.

"Without further research, it simply relied on the city's allegation, and accepted that Black Magic is a silicate based sandblasting media and therefore assumed that some of its readings contained silica," the lawsuit claims.

Canotech argues Pinchin had no evidence to assert that any of their readings that detected silica were shown in amounts higher than "normal ambient" amounts, nor that the materials could be linked to the sandblasting.

Pinchin never shared details of its investigation with Canotech, the lawsuit says.

The city then asked Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health to investigate.

Canotech claims Workplace Safety and Health then issued a work improvement order based only on the city's silica allegation. The company said Workplace Safety and Health also failed to produce evidence of silica contamination associated with the sandblasting material.

By the end of July, the city no longer suggested the Black Magic sandblasting substance contained silica, the lawsuit says. The city instead argued work on concrete in the civic centre led to the release of silica inside the concrete, and that escaped during sandblasting.

Canotech disagreed with the order and investigation results from Pinchin, but followed remedial work guidelines anyway in August 2021.

The city ordered that work be done in line with hazardous conditions protocol and hired a couple of different cleaning services to help. Some workers wore hazmat suits and respirators in the cleanup.

Negative for silica: Canotech

By September 2021, Canotech hired Winnipeg Air Testing to collect samples of dust in the civic centre and produce its own report.

Winnipeg Air Testing found no signs of silica released from sandblasting during the summer, Canotech said. That report was provided to the city and Pinchin.

Work resumed in fall 2021, but dust shut down operations again, when sandblasting was occurring at the same time as unrelated duct cleaning.

The same city administrator overstepped again by directing sandblasting to stop, saying it was due to suspected silica dust contamination, the lawsuit says. Crawl space work was shut down from fall 2021 through January 2022.

Canotech finally finished up this summer.

The city hasn't filed a statement of defence. A lawyer representing Canotech declined to comment.