Stephen Spencer Davis and Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
As emergency crews searched for survivors buried beneath the rubble of a collapsed mall last summer, both the rescue teams and government staffers struggled to rein in a muddled message in the glare of media coverage and a distraught community.
Anna Mehler Paperny and Jennifer Tryon, Global News
Heather Richer was in her van at dawn June 24, ready to drive to work before her Sunday customers trickled in.
It was only after the car was in motion that she remembered: There was no work to go to. The mall that housed her restaurant was a crumpled hulk after a crashing rooftop parking lot sent concrete slabs through two floors the previous afternoon.
In March, 2011, Yorkdale Group Inc. went to court claiming Eastwood Mall Inc. and Bob Nazarian, owners of Elliot Lake’s Algo Centre Mall, owed Yorkdale $23,825.45 for consulting done between November, 2010 and February, 2011 studying the feasibility of retrofitting work.
(documents after the jump)
In 2010, Peak Building Restoration & General Contracting went to court claiming that Bob Nazarian and Eastwood Mall Inc., the owners of Elliot Lake’s Algo Centre Mall, owed Peak Restoration $741,157.01, having only paid part of the $ $823,657.01 bill for repairs and waterproofing to the Algo Centre’s rooftop parking lot in 2008.
(documents after the jump)
Ontario’s Ministry of Labour has released field reports for six of its visits to Elliot Lake’s Algo Centre Mall. It isn’t clear how many other visits the ministry has made in the past.
The most recent field report, from January 2012, indicates recurrent leaking and plans by mall owner Bob Nazarian to find a permanent solution the following spring.
Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Saturday, June 30, 2012 – Globe and Mail
ADRIAN MORROW, ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY, JANE SWITZER and STEPHEN SPENCER DAVIS
TORONTO and ELLIOT LAKE, ONT. — When the mines powering Elliot Lake wound down 20 years ago, the town’s mall was poised to go with them: Its tenants were leaving, its owners eager to sell and its maintenance issues well known.
But volunteers intent on keeping Elliot Lake going knew they needed a commercial centre for what they hoped to turn into a vital retirement community. They bought the mall with this in mind, and the Algo Centre, built for a far larger and more prosperous city, became the small town’s anomalous locus point.
Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Friday, July 29, 2012 – Globe and Mail
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY, KAREN HOWLETT, STEPHEN SPENCER DAVIS AND JANE SWITZER
TORONTO AND ELLIOT LAKE
Premier Dalton McGuinty is considering major changes to Ontario’s emergency response protocol as multiple investigations get under way in the wake of a fatal mall collapse.
But even as he promised full transparency for a grieving and frustrated community, the most basic information about who was checking to ensure Elliot Lake’s Algo Centre Mall was structurally sound, and when they last checked, remained elusive.
Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Thursday, June 28, 2012 – Globe and Mail
ADAM RADWANSKI AND ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY
With two bodies pulled from the wreckage of Elliot Lake’s Algo Mall, Dalton McGuinty’s government is set to begin a grim review of whether Ontario’s own emergency-response processes undermined the ultimately fruitless rescue mission.
A source in the Premier’s Office confirmed on Wednesday that the review will consider whether the specialized excavator used to dismantle the collapsed mall – four days after the crisis began – should have been brought in sooner.
Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Wednesday, June 27, 2012 – Globe and Mail
ADAM RADWANSKI, ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY, STEPHEN SPENCER DAVIS and JANE SWITZER
TORONTO and ELLIOT LAKE, ONT. — Ontario’s Premier acknowledges that confusion and delays in the effort to reach possible survivors of a shopping mall roof collapse have raised concerns about the province’s capacity to respond to serious emergencies.
“There will be a time for questions that need to be asked about what and when and how and why not,” Premier Dalton McGuinty said Tuesday, after being asked how a race to reach potential survivors could be halted and then resumed only after his intervention.
As heavy equipment began rumbling up the highway to the Algo Mall in Elliot Lake to undertake the task of prying apart heavy concrete slabs inside an unstable structure, questions also grew as to whether clearer lines of communication and stronger leadership on the ground could have saved precious time.
Chris Young/Canadian Press
Tuesday, June 26, 2012 – Globe and Mail
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY, STEPHEN SPENCER DAVIS AND JANE SWITZER
With fading hopes of finding anyone alive in the rubble of a collapsed mall in Elliot Lake, Ont., rescuers announced they would work through the night on Tuesday using a newly-delivered mechanical arm to remove debris and search for survivors.
a business of misfits 