City of Powell River staff were asked to produce a report for city council regarding asbestos remediation at qathet Museum and Archives.
At the February 15 city council meeting, councillors heard a delegation from the museum regarding costs and delays that have happened as a result of asbestos in the facility.
Museum board of directors president George Wall said the museum is run by the qathet Museum and Archives society board and has been since 1967. He said the museum is fortunate to be leasing a building from the city.
“However, we need your help to continue to operate the museum by paying for asbestos remediation,” said Wall. “Based on an understanding that qathet Museum and Archive board believes we have with the city, we believe the board is at a risk of liability due to the city’s lack of action over a 30-year period.”
Wall said the archive is full and the shelving is inadequate. He said the museum was able to use some funding in order to upgrade shelving, which requires drilling into the floor of the building and into the walls. He said the museum had everything tested for asbestos because no installer would think about going there without this knowledge.
“We were notified the city knew there was asbestos in the building in 1990,” said Wall. “We met with city staff in October 2022. We officially received the asbestos report on Christmas Eve of 2022 from the city’s paid consultant. The initial inspection from the report found that the flooring in the archive room was fine, but it was actually not fine. Once we removed the shelving in the archive, the asbestos tile was damaged, leading to the need to remediate the asbestos tile for any further work to be done in there.
“The city sent us a letter in January 2023 that we believe accepts some responsibility for the asbestos remediation.”
Wall said there were numerous meetings over the next 12 months. He said the line that has been drawn by the museum is it will be in charge of moving all the artifacts and moving all the shelving and the city would be responsible for the asbestos remediation in the archive room where the shelving is to be installed.
“Lack of action between January and December 2023 led the board to make some decisions and we also incurred a significant cost increase for the shelving unit and the installation of about $40,000 over the time when we wanted to have it installed,” said Wall. “We had hoped to have this wrapped up by 2023 but that didn’t happen.”
Wall said the museum took care of the remediation, which cost around $6,500, and that work is now done. He said the museum is asking for reimbursement of that $6,500, and also, a plan going forward for further asbestos remediation because the report issued to the museum shows high risk of exposure in both the museum building and centennial building.
“The board feels we are at an undue amount of risk with the knowledge of asbestos in the building where our staff works regularly, and museum patrons visit regularly,” said Wall.
Board secretary Lauren Exeter said there was concern about insurance, and it seems that directors would not be covered by municipal or the museum’s insurance, so the board members would be personally liable for any suit brought forward. He said that led to a decision that the board would resign if there was no satisfaction about the liability issue.
City councillor Trina Isakson asked staff what could be done to seek direction from council for what options are available.
Chief administrative officer Lisa Bhopalsingh said a staff report could be generated looking at the museum and other municipal properties. Isakson made a motion to direct staff to prepare a report to council on options and potential consequences of finding a solution to support the museum.
Councillor Cindy Elliott wanted to make sure the report also took into account other municipally owned facilities. She moved an amendment to include other properties, but the amendment failed.
Council then voted to have staff produce a report related to asbestos in the museum.
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