New Brunswick could face new delays in three main bridge projects as the provincial government moves to fire an important contractor: a measure that the company believes is linked to its legal struggle for interprovincial commercial barriers.
CBC News learned that Julmac Contracting Ltd. received non -compliance notices from the province in three projects: updates to the Mactaquac dam bridge near Fredericton and the Centennial Bridge in Miramichi, and a replacement for the Anderson bridge of Miramichi.
A non -compliance notice tells a construction company that it has not complied with the terms of a contract and that is often the first step to end the agreement.
The province issued the notices only a few weeks before a deadline in the court procedures that will listen to an Julmac complaint under the Interprovincial Free Trade Agreement in Canada, the first case of its kind to reach that point.
A contractor in three main projects says that the company is being expelled by a complaint about interprovincial commercial barriers
“What other reasons would have to put us in breach?” said Derek Martin, the owner of Acton, Julmac, based in Ontario.
“I have been in the construction industry doing this for 35 years. What is the probability of having three notices for breach in three contracts within two minutes from one to the other?”
The province issued the notices on January 31, Martin confirmed. According to the 2017 Internal Agreement, New Brunswick must submit your application to annul Julmac’s complaint before February 24.
Martin said that dropping to Julmac as a “very likely” contractor will add more delays to the projects, which are already behind the expected, partly due to the treatment of the company’s province, he said.
The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure refused to comment on the possible dismissal of Julmac because the company has a civil lawsuit in the King’s Bench court in search of $ 27 million in damage to the province.
“I can tell him that the department will do everything possible to advance with these projects in the most timely and efficient way,” said spokesman Jacob Macdonald.
Julmac alleges that the government has treated him more hard than the headquarters based in New Brunswick, which says the Canadian free trade agreement and has cost him millions of dollars.
That includes force to use more expensive materials, be less flexible with sanctions due to lost deadlines and take longer to review and approve plans compared to local companies.
“Indeed, [the province’s] The behavior creates a multimillionaire subsidy for local contractors. This makes it very difficult for other contractors, who do not receive this preferable treatment, to compete, “says his presentation.
Martin said that Anderson Bridge’s replacement in Miramichi could have finished last fall if the province had not delayed the approval of Julmac Designs for several months.
New Brunswick headquarters are not treated that way, he said.
Commercial barriers between the provinces have become a recently highlighted issue as governments look for ways to mitigate the impact of possible US tariffs on Canadian exports.
“It has certainly risen to the top of the priority list, since we seek to make sure that goods can flow between our provinces easily,” the first week said last week last week.
“Fortunately, New Brunswick has always been a leader on this front … We have never been one to put many barriers because we don’t want to face them in other provinces.”
Holt’s statement is contradicted by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, which occupies the province of its less disturbing in general by barriers to internal trade.
“Clearly, someone else is seeing it,” Martin said. “It’s not just my opinion.”
Although a handful of other challenges took place under a previous interprovincial commercial agreement, the Julmac case is the first to reach the panel stage under the 2017 updated agreement.
Ryan Manucha, a member of the CD Howe Institute and author of a book on interprovincial commercial restrictions, said he is “excited” to see that the “incredibly important” case reaches this point.
“It is a sign of a system that is working,” he said.
“It is a signal to the Canadian governments that companies will take him to the Court, an internal court, if he does not play with the rules of the CFTA for which he registered. And … it is a sign for other companies that, he hears, this , this is a legitimate way. “
Three provinces, Ontario, Saskatchewan and Nueva Scotia, are intervening in the case.
Julmac began working in New Brunswick in 2021 and has approached a series of bridge updates.
The Mactaquac bridge was supposed to end the past fall.
The Anderson bridge was reduced to a lane in 2016 due to its deterioration condition, and the work on a replacement bridge began in 2020. It was also supposed to end last year.
Centennial Bridge update was announced in 2015 as a nine -year project, but the great work on the deck, or the driving surface, is expected to take the following three summer construction seasons to complete.
The total cost of that project was linked this month at $ 195 million by the Department of Transportation, more than double the original estimate of $ 82.8 million.
Martin attributes the excesses of costs and delays in Julmac’s projects to the treatment of the company’s province because it is from outside New Brunswick.
