Three lawyers representing participants in the Collingwood Judicial Inquiry objected to questions raised about repairs currently underway at Centennial Aquatic Centre.
During the inquiry hearing Tuesday, Sprung regional sales manager Tom Lloyd was on the witness stand.
At the end of inquiry counsel’s examination-in-chief, associate counsel John Mather brought up a Sept. 5, 2019 email from Collingwood staff to Sprung and BLT staff that included photos of tiles taken from the floor of the changerooms at the pool. The email suggests the “quality of workmanship is very poor” for the changeroom floors.
Currently, the town is paying a contractor to replace the changeroom floors, and the project budget had to be increased by a vote of town council when, staff said, crews noticed the floors were installed incorrectly and allowed standing water to collect underneath the tile.
Part of the work, according to a town staff report, includes installing more drains in the floors. The total project cost is approximately $176,000 and the pool will be closed for an added three weeks on top of the planned closure of three weeks for maintenance and repairs last month.
The email from Mel Milanovic, Collingwood’s manager of recreation facilities, to Tom Lloyd at Sprung, Dave Barrow at BLT Construction, and Paul Waddell at BLT Construction, stated the “wrong materials were used, there was no waterproofing, adhesives were incorrect, floors were not sloped at all toward the drains, the type of tile is not correct for this application and not enough floor drains were installed for these areas.”
Dean Embry, counsel for Lloyd (Sprung) objected as soon as the email appeared on the screen during the hearing today.
Embry called the email “an unsubstantiated” complaint, and suggested it was “irrelevant to the inquiry.”
“It would be unfair to expose Mr. Lloyd through a public inquiry to have to defend himself or his business partner in this manner,” said Embry.
The Collingwood Judicial Inquiry was called by council in February 2018, to look into the sale of 50 per cent of Collus to PowerStream in 2012 by the town, and, secondly, the allocation of proceeds from the sale to purchase two Sprung fabric membrane structures - built and installed by BLT construction - for an arena at Central Park and to cover the existing Centennial Pool.
Currently, the inquiry is in stage two of public hearings, now focused on the allocation of funds and the two recreation facilities.
Bill Trudell, counsel representing BLT Construction at the inquiry, also objected to the Sept. 5 email being raised. He preemptively voiced his concerns in anticipation the same questions would be raised of Dave Barrow when he takes the witness stand.
Trudell stated this was the “first time” any suggestion was raised to BLT that there may be something wrong with the tiling of the floor of the pool.
He said the email was unfair, and told the inquiry Barrow offered to send someone to the pool building to look and “maybe help” with the issue, but the town declined the offer.
“The problem could be many, many issues,” said Trudell. “I could imagine that, if a year or within the warranty period, the Sprung structure had blown away, this might be an issue that you might want to talk about, but this is so foreign … there’s no evidence.”
Fred Chenoweth, lawyer for Edwin Houghton - who was Chief Administrative Officer of the town during the purchase and building of the recreation facilities - also objected, stating his agreement with the other two lawyers on the matter.
Mather responded to the objections, stating it was inquiry counsel’s view the matters are relevant to what the town paid, continues to pay, and what they’re receiving for the pool and the arena.
“I also note that in this inquiry, participants have elicited evidence already about the quality and the value of both facilities and Inquiry counsel is interested in exploring that further,” said Mather.
On several occasions, Chenoweth and Paul Bonwick have, during cross-examination, asked various witnesses to describe the value of the recreation facilities to the community, and for comments on the quality of the buildings.
Associate Chief Justice Frank Marrocco, the judge presiding over the inquiry, said he considered the fact that the repairs were made, or have to be made, relevant.
Truell tried again to object.
“I’m very concerned about what you just said,” he told Marrocco. “Because you said the fact that repairs have to be made. Repairs to what? From when? This is not going to help you in terms of reference, but it could be seen as very prejudicial here.”
Trudell argued there was no evidence to suggest the repairs were related to workmanship and said the issue was not raised before.
Chenoweth also objected a second time.
“Does Mr. Mather intend to call some expert witness of some kind to say why the repairs are necessary?” he asked. “I just don’t know how it could possibly be helpful or useful even with respect to the question of quality.”
Justice Marrocco reiterated it was a fact the repairs were made and one he would allow in the course of inquiry counsel’s examination.
“You’re the one that’s drawing the connection to quality,” said Marrocco, apparently to Trudell and Chenoweth.
Mather resumed his questions, asking Tom Lloyd if he had heard of issues with the tiling in the change rooms.
“This was absolutely the first time I’d heard of it,” said Lloyd, referring to the Sept. 5 email.
Lloyd said the town and Sprung have “a great relationship” and he had helped the town with issues in the past, including designing a wind cover around the doors of both structures.
“I’m just saying, we’re here all the time and all of a sudden we find out about the floors,” said Lloyd.
A response from Lloyd was included in the email used as evidence in Tuesday's hearing. In it, Lloyd wrote, “the Collingwood Inquiry is starting next week, so the timing is not great.”
Mather asked him why he wrote that in his email response.
“Well, it just seemed very ironic to me … that days before the inquiry kicks off, [this is] the first I hear, me personally or BLT, about an issue that they believe to be poor-quality tile,” said Lloyd during his testimony.
“The pool has now been open for well over seven years and operating full-time. How do we know, as it was raised, that it wasn’t just bad mopping, it wasn’t vandalism? It just seemed the timing was very odd.”
The Collingwood Inquiry continues with public hearings resuming Thursday, Oct. 3 at 10 a.m. at the town hall council chambers. You can attend in person, or watch the hearings live on Rogers TV, or streamed online via rogerstv.com.
