John Tory ‘aggravated’ by Nathan Philips Square renovations, now $20 million overbudget and 3 years overdue

NationalPost.com
April 9, 2015
Natalie Alcoba

When Mayor John Tory looked out the window of his city-hall office and saw fences being erected in the middle of the interminably construction-strewn Nathan Phillips Square this week, he thought, “What in heaven’s name?”

Then a backhoe came in. Some time later, the concrete tiles had been removed and a big gaping hole exposed.

“I was going to stop and ask the man, ‘What are you doing here?’ Nicely, just say, ‘what’s going on?’ ” the mayor said. The answer, he discovered, is that fountains installed by the city as part of its never-ending revitalization of its main civic square have broken down.

Tory has been told crews are repairing a liner in the pool that feeds the sprinkler fountains, which have been there for only three years.

“This is like taking your car off the lot and finding it’s broken down within the first four kilometres you drive it,” said a clearly frustrated Tory, who wants the city to pursue the contractor “as aggressively as possible” to get money back for work that “clearly” was improperly done.

“I just was so aggravated because I really want to declare this project over, to declare it as an unfortunate chapter in terms of the expenditure and move on learning lessons from the thing as to how we can stop this from happening,” the mayor said on Thursday.

In a statement on Wednesday, city spokeswoman Wynna Brown said the estimated cost for the repairs is $70,000. It will come out of the existing envelope of the Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization Project, which has already gone way over its original budget.

Ms. Brown didn’t mention the fountain, but said the city is repairing the waterproofing of an expansion joint located below the precast pavers, which is leaking. “The square and (its) original expansion joints, which was built in the 1960s, is a concrete structure that has many seals and joints that receive ongoing maintenance and repairs. Expansion joints of this nature can be impacted by adverse weather, such as the extremely cold winters and weather cycles we’ve experienced over the last few years,” Ms. Brown said.

“Similar repairs may be required in the future as part of the city’s ongoing state of good repair programs.”

Renovation of the square was originally supposed to be completed by 2012. Officials initially pegged the cost at $40 million, which was to be mostly raised by philanthropists and the private sector.

Instead, the project has been entirely funded by taxpayers, and the cost has ballooned to $60.4 million. In a December report, bureaucrats advised that they had removed $11 million worth of elements — including a standalone restaurant — from the original project in order to stay within the latest budget.

However, council then voted to proceed with a selection process to find a lessee to design, build, finance and operate an eatery on the square.

Counc. Paul Ainslie, who chairs the government management committee, said the entire budget for Nathan Phillips Square remains $60.4 million. Apparently all that’s left to do is add curtains on the new stage and minor landscaping.

“I would like to have a ribbon-cutting this summer so people understand we’re done,” Ainslie said.

For his part, Tory hopes all work concludes sooner rather than later. “I look out my window all the time, and it just aggravates me,” he said.