09/07/2008

Associated Press

First there were leaky condominiums littering the Vancouver skyline with blue tarpaulins, each a sign of expensive renovations. More than a thousand buildings have been affected and costs are running into billions of dollars.

Now public schools throughout British Columbia have sprung plug leaks.

Of more than 700 schools built in the province between 1985 and 2000, when the condos went up, almost 400 are leaky or being assessed for leaks, according to documents obtained by The Canadian Press.

The repair tab, estimated at nearly $357 million by Phil Grewer, executive director of the province's Risk Management Branch, is the responsibility of the Ministry of Education. Education Minister Shirley Bond declined requests for an interview.

Mold in wet buildings can cause illness, but Grewer said most of the problems discovered to date have been on the outside of school buildings.

"That's why you want to catch it," he said. "You want to catch it before it gets inside the building."

Not all schools have been so lucky. In Lake Cowichan on Vancouver Island, A.B. Greenwell Elementary school was closed because of a high mold spore count.

"We had been complaining about the smell in that school since 1995-96," said Dave Halme, president of the Lake Cowichan Teachers Association.

During a meeting of parents and staff to discuss the problem, Halme said, a man wearing a white plastic suit and a mask began taping up plastic.

"There was a huge spot of mold growing on the carpet," Halme said.

Now the 130 children who were in the school are bused about 14 miles to a specially reopened school in Youbou and a decision on what to do with A.B. Greenwwell is pending.

Several lawsuits have been filed against builders, architects, contractors, plumbing and heating firms, inspectors, window installers and makers and many other trades.

Grewer said the lawsuits are often settled out of court for a portion of what the Education Ministry paid to fix the problem.

Five engineering firms are working on schools around the province, conducting building envelope condition assessments, Grewer said.

The affected schools are in various stages of repair with about two dozen are listed as completed and about the same number "in progress."

When water damage is noticed in a school, an initial risk assessment is conducted and engineers decide on whether the problem warrants a complete envelope assessment needs to be completed.

So far 123 schools are in the risk assessment stage. More than 200 schools are in the next phase, undergoing a full assessment of the building envelope condition.

Surrey's school district in the suburbs south of Vancouver, which experienced a dramatic population boom between 1985 and 2000, has 48 schools under assessment, far more than any other district.

Grewer said the most damaged schools get top priority for .

"Then it's a matter of having the money available to do it," he said.