Insurance will cover stadium repairs: Selinger

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This article was published 27/10/2015 (3726 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Premier Greg Selinger says insurance will cover the cost of repairs to Investors Group Field — but it’s up to the courts to decide whose premiums are bound to take a hit.

One day after his cabinet approved a $35.3-million loan guarantee that will allow facility owner Triple B Stadium to proceed with repairs, Selinger said he’s confident insurance will cover the tab.

“BBB has its own insurance. The architect has his own insurance, the contractor has their own insurance,” Selinger said Tuesday at the 2.5-year-old football stadium, whose concrete concourse will undergo repairs after the Grey Cup is held in Winnipeg in November.

Triple B Stadium — a shell company representing the city, province, the University of Manitoba and the Winnipeg Football Club — sued contractor Stuart Olson Construction and architect Ray Wan in March, alleging they’re responsible for 42 design and construction deficiencies at the $209-million facility.

In a statement of defence, Stuart Olson alleged Triple B Stadium and the Selinger government ignored design deficiencies and rushed the project into construction. Wan, in his own statement of defence, alleged Triple B oversaw every aspect of the construction job.

Selinger said the courts will determine who is ultimately responsible.

“Nobody ever said you should build the stadium improperly. Those are decisions made by the contractors, by the architects, by the people managing the project. Even there, everybody may have thought they did the best job possible. It’s up to the courts to make findings about who’s responsible for that,” the premier said.

“What I’m comfortable with is everybody took out the proper insurance against these potential risks that can occur when you build a big facility like this.”

Nonetheless, if there’s a settlement to the lawsuit, Manitobans may not know who is responsible for problems with the stadium or learn how much cash the province paid out, Opposition house leader Kelvin Goertzen (Steinbach) said in the legislature.

“I hope the government is not moving to a situation where they’re going to have a non-disclosure agreement, Mr. Speaker, toward a settlement, where they don’t tell the public ultimately how much is going to be paid. It is public dollars,” Goertzen said.

Opposition Leader Brian Pallister said he fears the cost of Investors Group Field “seems to be growing every day” but could not say what a Progressive Conservative government would do to deal with Winnipeg’s troubled football stadium.

“Right now, I don’t know how deep the hole is I’m inheriting,” Pallister said. “I have no idea what the court settlements will be.”

The PC leader said there appears to be growing evidence the Selinger government did in fact rush the project in 2011, as suggested by former Triple B chairman Phil Sheegl and alleged by Stuart Olson Construction in its statement of defence against the Triple B lawsuit.

“You can rush a quarterback, but you don’t rush a construction project,” quipped Pallister before repeating his party’s call for a provincial audit of the stadium construction project.

Selinger repeated his contention the auditor general is free to do that if he so wishes.

The premier also said he is disappointed by the problems at the stadium, but assured the public the building is safe “for all uses, including the Grey Cup.”

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca