Council waiting for details on damaged PG Playhouse

“If you look closer, there is mold, there is rot, there’s been moisture getting in there, you drive around the other side and there is big bubbles with the paint,” says Skakun who wonders how it even got to this point. “One of the questions I have, and it’s way past that at one point but how the hell did this even pass an inspection in the first place.”

Councillor Kyle Sampson worries about other civic facilities with similar facades, the Civic Centre, the Aquatic Centre, the CN Centre, all built with stucco in the 1990’s along with the renovation to the PG Playhouse.

“It’s shocking, but how do you know that in advance,” says Sampson. “It’s rot from behind the wall, and we’re not just taking out the walls of public buildings checking it out and seeing what’s back there.”

But Sampson says this should start a conversation around the countless buildings around the city, all at the end of their lives.

Council is expected to receive a report in a matter of weeks detailing the damage and a cost to repair the facility, but both Sampson and Skakun agree, what that report contains will be crucial to determine the next steps for the venue, and the land it stands on.

Sampson says there will be a point down the road, and it may be sooner than later, that there needs to be an end of life plan, and potentially look at building a replacement of some kind.

The entertainment industry depends on the facility says Sampson, who noted the last show before COVID-19 took over the world, was Alan Doyle.

He says the venue has it’s place in the community to accomodate acts and shows who otherwise would have nowhere else to perform.

Sampson says citizens will have the final say when decisions are being made on the next steps for an aging venue that may be at the end of it’s life that could involve a replacement plan.

by Caden Fanshaw

Council waiting for details on damaged PG Playhouse

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