Phase II of Bonnylodge Stalled

Contractor bankruptcy puts project at a standstill

Lakeland Lodge & Housing Foundation is reporting that Phase II of the Bonnylodge has been halted after the contractor on the project went bankrupt. Chair of Lakeland Lodge & Housing and Councillor for the Town of Bonnyville, Ray Prevost says the most frustrating part about the situation is the project is 80 percent complete.

“The contractor went bankrupt. We’re very close to being finished. However, there’s some stuff that would prevent us from getting an occupancy permit,” Prevost explains the project is weeks away from moving in residents – that is, if it could ever get going again. “The elevator hasn’t been serviced and the mechanical system hasn’t been tested, so we’re not going to get a permit.” After the contractor went bankrupt the Lakeland Lodge & Housing Foundation appealed to the Provincial Government to invoke the bid bond and to finish the project.

“We’re asking them to pull the darn bid bond and get the job finished. That’s why you put the bid bond in, if a guy goes belly-up, you got the bid bond and hire a new contractor, get the job complete and move some people in,” Prevost says the Foundation is stuck in a bureaucratic standstill with the Provincial Government. “We’re still after them. I’ve written a letter to the Province asking for a get-together some time this week.” Prevost, along with other members of Bonnyville Council, are attending the AUMA this week and has asked for a meeting with the Minister of Seniors, the Honourable, Lori Sigurdson. At the time of this publication, Prevost had not received a response to his request for a meeting. “If it’s possible to get a 20 minute meeting with the Minister, I’d like to explain some of the issues that’s holding up the show.”

“This is not fair, because there’s 30 seniors, five couples and 25 single seniors that have their names on that list [to move in]. Some of them are in dire straights,” Prevost says he knows of some seniors who were expecting to move in, who had sold their homes. Considering Phase II was planned to be completed in November of 2015, then pushed to January 2016, then pushed again to March… and now it’s early October 2016 with no hope (yet) of the project being completed any time soon.

“The first contract is complete, that’s the one with Genmac. It’s complete, we’ve had our final inspection,” Prevost says the first contract included 32 rooms and winged off of the Bonnylodge. The second phase, which is incomplete, is independent senior’s apartments. The facility is in the same block and grounds of Bonnylodge but not attached physically to the lodge.

The Minister of Seniors recently visited Bonnyville and announced that Phase III of the Bonnylodge, which would attach Phase II to the main building and add more intensive care units to the facility had been approved and funded. However, without the competition of Phase II, Prevost is unsure how Phase III could go ahead, logistically speaking.

For now the Bonnylodge is at a standstill, says Prevost, “it’s the most frustrating thing, because we’re almost there; we’re nearly complete.”