It's not clear if the Legal Notice of the last week spotted in the back pages of the weekly paper is reason for celebration; or something that may require some further illumination from Prince Rupert City Council, with the City issuing a Notice of Completion for the Watson Island Demolition Project.
The Legal notice which was released last week notes that as of June 15th 2020, a Certificate of Completion, or court order to that effect, was issued with respect to a contract between the City of Prince Rupert and JMX Contracting Incorporated.
That in connection to an improvement on land at the Watson Island site, related to the provision of demolition and recycling services.
As part of the advisory, it's noted that "All persons entitled to claim a lien under the Builders Lien Act and who performed work or supplies material in connection with, or under the contract are warned that the time to file a claim of lien may be abridged and Section 20 of the Act should be consulted"
The details of note from the Builders Lien Act can be reviewed here.
The JMX Group is currently navigating creditor protection process.
While the Mayor made note of the three year anniversary for the Watson Island demolition work earlier this year, City Council rarely speaks to the details related towards past work and the cost of the work to the city
City Councillors regularly hail their efforts on the Watson Island file as an important element of revenue generation for the community, however to date other than the leasing options from Pembina towards their LPG Terminal plans, City Council has not announced if any other companies have taken out leasing opportunities in the city's reborn Industrial site.
Since the location is once again a topical thing, even if in the Legal Notices, perhaps we may hear something of the current Notice and other elements for development of Watson island as part of tonight's Comments opportunity for Councillors at the Monday night session.
For past notes on Watson Island see our archive page here.
A Preview of what themes that City Council plans to discuss tonight can be examined from our Preview page here.
If it is the City of Prince Rupert the taxpayers should have the information related to it. If the contractor’s contract was with the Legacy Fund it should state it. Which is it?
ReplyDeleteIt would be good to get a report on how much the demolition phase and the work that preceded it cost the City in total. While Legacy Corp leases Watson Island and has been paying dividends to the City, there have been substantial outlays of City funds on Watson Island.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the back pages of the annual reports, the City noted expenditures on Watson Island (with no offsetting revenues) of $1,656,348 in 2016, $593,826 in 2017, $1,635,686 in 2018, and $1,392,556 in 2019. The grand total is $5,278,556.
How much of Legacy's money comes from Watson Island, and how much remains from what it received from Exxon years ago is not known. The City has posted Legacy's financial statements for 2018, which are sketchy, and for previous years, but no information is reported for 2019.
Now that the demolition phase is drawing to a close it would seem timely for the Mayor and council to direct that a report be given on the finances relating to Watson Island and how everything shook out in the end. The stated objective of setting up Legacy was to provide flexibility around expenditures of funds from real estate transactions, not to obscure those transactions from the taxpaying public.
Why Watson Island