Kuujjuaq may take construction company to court

ODILE NELSON

The unhappy marriage between Kuujjuaq’s village council and the company that built the town’s cultural centre will likely end in court, Kuujjuaq’s mayor said last week.

Mayor Michael Gordon said the town has little choice but to withhold 10 to 20 per cent of the centre’s $8.3-million building contract from Progère Construction because the company did not deliver the building on time or in the way it was supposed to.

The controversial decision will likely force both parties into Quebec provincial court.

Gordon announced his sanction against the Trois-Rivières company after spending weeks dealing with several leaks in the building’s roof.

The leaks have caused extensive water damage to the three-month-old centre’s ceiling and threaten expensive equipment in its electrical room.

But the town is not considering the drastic measure because of the leaking roof, or 43 other construction deficiencies he could list, Gordon said.

Instead, the town made the decision, Gordon said, because construction delays forced it to assume some of the centre’s projects to ensure the building would be ready for the Inuit Circumpolar Conference this past August.

“We’re satisfied they will fix the roof and we will be satisfied once other deficiencies have been worked out,” Gordon said. “But the first deadline [for the building’s completion] was the end of May. Then we both agreed to extend it to June 30, then they pushed it back to July and then it went down to the wire with the Inuit Circumpolar Conference in August when we had to take over some of the work so the building would be finished in time for the conference.”

The extra work, Gordon said, included finishing the parking lot, front entrance and part of the basement.

The town will also withhold money from Progère Construction because the company has not paid some subcontractors, Gordon said.

Kuujjuaq’s cultural centre has been praised for its innovative architectural style and its curvaceous design that reflects the surrounding Arctic landscape. The 1,900-square-meter building houses a 500-seat auditorium, a state-of-the art cinema, a visitor’s centre and various municipal offices.

But since Kuujjuaq awarded the contract to the Trois-Rivières company in March 2001, with the initial delivery date set for May 31, 2002, the centre’s construction has been plagued by problems and delays.

There are still at least 44 “deficiencies” the town claims Progère Construction must correct — including gaps in railings, missing vents in some washrooms, incomplete paint jobs and a mayoral office door that does not shut properly.

Yet Marc Blais, president of Progère Construction, said if there is any blame for the construction delays it lays at Kuujjuaq’s feet.

According to Blais, Kuujjuaq first set the delays in motion when it could not muster up funding to secure the contract at the beginning of the summer.

The two parties had to wait until August to sign an agreement.

Then, after the company transported equipment and construction materials to Kuujjuaq, the town council caused another serious delay when it altered the building’s excavation site.

Both these problems, he said, delayed the start of construction by at least a month and a half.

“This particular project has been under-financed from the beginning. The second problem was you don’t award a contract up north in late August. You can’t begin pouring concrete in October,” Blais said.

“Then it wasn’t wise to schedule the ICC when the contract was given out only the previous year. But despite all this we did our best to fill our obligations. We attempted the impossible to satisfy our contract.”

Blais acknowledges the centre was not ready for the renegotiated June 30 deadline. But he said the company met its contractual obligation because Kuujjuaq’s additional construction demands extended the building’s delivery date.

Kuujjuaq village council made 147 requests not contained in the centre’s original blueprints — such as changing the excavation site, adding new stairs and sidewalks and various height and mechanical modifications.

Each change legally allowed the company to extend the building’s delivery date, Blais said.

“It was understood because of those changes Progère had to lengthen the schedule. We made a lot of effort — we worked days, nights and weekends to meet the ICC conference [deadline],” Blais said.

Blais disputes Gordon’s assertion that the town had to step in to finish the building in time for the ICC.

Progère and the Kuujjuaq’s village council, he said, agreed the building would be delivered in two phases to meet the ICC date — the auditorium on June 28 and the rest of the building on Aug. 5.

He said his company was set to make both those dates on its own.

In the end, the town’s interference may have caused more harm than good, Blais said. In addition to the leaking roof there is also a leak in the basement but Progère can only warranty projects that it worked on.

Since the town took over the basement the company cannot fix it without charging the town.

Blais said he would do his utmost to fulfill all the contract’s obligations — including fixing the roof and retrieving any money owed to his company.

“If he [Gordon] decides to do this [withhold money], he’s taken justice onto himself. Kuujjuaq needs to be responsible and must respect the contract it signed,” Blais said.

“If it will not pay the contract in total, then we will have to see it sorted by the court.”