VALE CENTRE ROOF REPAIR BILL DOUBLE WHAT CITY BUDGETED

REPAIR WORK TO COST $2 MILLION, CITY PUT $1 MILLION ASIDE IN 2023 BUDGET

After years of unsuccessful patchwork and minor repairs, the city is poised to finally bite the bullet and properly fix the leaky roof at the Vale Health and Wellness Centre.

The roof has been leaking since the day the Vale Centre opened. The city is stuck holding the bill for repairs because the company that installed the roof, ceased to exist shortly after the project was finished.

Last year's city budget included more than $100,000 for the roof, but that didn't include any repairs. Instead, the money was used for inspections to determine why the roof was leaking, and how much it might cost to fix it.

The inspections paint a damning picture of a building shoddily put together, sometimes with makeshift parts, and other times with important pieces of infrastructure completely missing.

For example, flood testing of roof drains resulted in "immediate leaking" leading to an inspection where, "removal of the existing drains determined that they are not actually drains but are 8inch Stack Jacks that were installed upside down and connected to the existing plumbing."

Further inspections also found, "missing and removed pipe insulation on the interior plumbing drain pipes"

The results of the inspection of the roof are included in a report heading to council this week with three different options.

The city could spend money on yet another patch job, which would cost $680,000. A proper repair

job on the roof comes with a price tag of $2 million. The final option was to completely rebuild

the roof, which came with a hefty $5 million price tag.

City hall staff are recommending the second option, spending $2 million to finally do a proper repair job on the roof.

The report recommends hiring Weatherproofing Technologies Canada (a division of the American-based Tremco Construction Group) to conduct the repair work. Repair work will include replacement of 1,218 feet of leaking gutters and 25 new drain assemblies, and application of a leakproofing layer. The work comes with a 12-year warranty from Tremco.

City hall pegs the full cost at $2 million, but only $1 million was included for Vale Centre roof repairs in this year's budget. The remaining $1 million will be pulled from the city's infrastructure reserve fund.

Once the extra $1 million is taken from reserves, the city's infrastructure fund will be down to $3.5 million.

Councillors will vote to spend the cash for the roof repairs at its first meeting of the new year, on Jan. 24.