Mountain View County council is asking the region's seniors' housing authority to provide member municipalities with a report detailing what went wrong with the Mount View Lodge project in Olds.In a motion passed on Jan. 26, council specified the report should ìreview the series of events which took place at the time the Olds lodge project transitioned from Stratum Developments to Shunda Construction.îAsked by Div. 1 Coun. Kevin Good whether the motion should also make reference to ìthe legal issues that the RCMP are looking into in regards to materials leaving the site and so on,î then-interim CAO Tony Martens said those issues should be covered by the motion as written.Stratum left the Olds lodge build in the fall of 2009 and later went bankrupt, leaving private senior housing projects in Okotoks and Lethbridge unfinished and encumbered with liens amid allegations of misuse of funds, which are now being investigated by RCMP commercial crimes unit in Calgary.Phase 1 of the new Mount View Lodge project in Olds is expected to come in about $3 million over budget, Mountain View Seniors' Housing interim CAO Sam Smalldon told the board late last year. Originally budgeted at $18.7 million, the Phase 1 project cost is now estimated at $21.64 million.The lodge is targeted for completion at the end of this month.With the RCMP investigating Stratum, major deficiencies in the original construction, and revelations that a past MVSH board did not bond the contractor or have the contract reviewed by a lawyer, the project was dubbed ìthe biggest fiasco to hit this county everî by Reeve Paddy Munro, then a candidate for council.The motion calling for a review was one of four related motions brought forward at the Jan. 26 meeting.ìI know Reeve Munro really wanted to speak to these, so it's on the agenda today,î Martens said.The first motion requested an update on a request made last fall for CAOs of member municipalities to report back on governance options for the seniors' housing authority board, currently comprised only of council members.ìI believe Mountain View Seniors' Housing is making positive steps, but we're trying to take steps to make sure we don't have situations like we had,î said Munro, who now sits on the board with deputy reeve Bruce Beattie.ìI believe our council has to be strong leaders on this and have to keep pushing until we get a more sustainable governance for Mountain View Seniors' Housing,î Munro said.Munro supported Div. 7 Coun. Al Kemmere's suggestion that the report be expanded to encompass all commissions with which the county is involved.Other motions were to direct the CAO to explore the feasibility and benefits of providing accounting services to the seniors' housing authority and to request the authority to provide information on the levels of comprehensive general liability insurance for board members.
