Contractor removed from 3 N.B. bridge projects, lawyer says
Provincial government's move ‘a serious escalation’ in dispute between Julmac and N.B., company lawyer says
The New Brunswick government has officially removed an Ontario construction company from three major bridge projects in the province, the company's lawyer said.
Julmac Contracting Ltd. was told Monday to stop work on upgrades to the Mactaquac Dam bridge near Fredericton and the Centennial Bridge in Miramichi, and on a replacement for Miramichi's Anderson Bridge, lawyer Shalom Cumbo‑Steinmetz told CBC News.
"This is a serious escalation between the two parties," he said.
"It is ultimately the province and the people of New Brunswick that are going to suffer from this dramatic move … because work will be delayed and it will not progress on schedule the way it would have if Julmac had been permitted to continue construction."
Cumbo‑Steinmetz repeated an accusation by Julmac's owner, Derek Martin, to CBC News last week that the province wanted the company off the projects because Julmac had filed a complaint against New Brunswick under an interprovincial trade agreement.
Julmac alleges in the trade complaint and in a civil lawsuit filed in 2023 that the province applied stricter standards to its work, such as design drawings, and was less flexible on timelines, than with New Brunswick construction companies.
Martin said this was what had caused existing delays on the projects.
Cumbo‑Steinmetz said the company will fight the province's decision in court.
In a response to Julmac's civil suit filed last fall, the province denied it was treating the Acton, Ont.-based company differently because it's from outside New Brunswick.
The province's statement of defence said Julmac's lawsuit relied on "repetitive generalizations without material facts."
Julmac's submissions "are routinely lacking in detail and fail to comply" with standard specifications, the province said in the filing.
"Any delays encountered by the plaintiff [Julmac] in respect of scheduling arise from the failure of the plaintiff to perform its contractual obligations."
The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure did not immediately respond to a request for a comment or for an interview with the minister, Chuck Chiasson, about the company's removal.
But the termination raises questions about three major projects already behind schedule.
The Mactaquac bridge was supposed to be finished last fall.
The Anderson Bridge was reduced to one lane in 2016 because of its deteriorating condition, and work on a replacement bridge started in 2020. It was also supposed to be finished last year.
The Centennial Bridge upgrade was announced in 2015 as a nine-year project, but major work on the deck, or driving surface, is expected to take the next three summer construction seasons to complete.
The total cost of that project was pegged this month at $195 million by the Department of Transportation — more than double the original $82.8 million estimate.
The province has until Feb. 24 to file a motion to have the internal trade tribunal throw out Julmac's complaint.
Cumbo‑Steinmetz said he hasn't seen any such filing yet.
Under the 2017 Canadian Free Trade Agreement, provinces are not allowed to treat out-of-province contractors differently from their own.
The agreement allows for a three-person tribunal to be appointed to hear complaints about alleged violations of the agreement, a process that is now underway between Julmac and the New Brunswick government.
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