More than a year after the roof of Calgary’s Fairview arena collapsed, the city’s insurer has finally paid out almost $5.4 million for the incident.
The roof of the aging structure, built in 1972, collapsed on February 20, 2018 – but the city’s undisclosed insurer declined to pay out on the claim until the cause could be determined. However, seven months after the incident, the insurer was still unable to figure out why the roof had collapsed.
After deciding to fund an external study on the incident, the insurer eventually paid out $4,929,523.95 to the city – the total valuation of replacing the roof structure.
City officials told CBC News that approximately $4.3 million of the payout is left after using $600,000 to cover costs associated with demolishing the remainder of the arena and remediating the site. Acting director of Calgary Recreation James McLaughlin told CBC News that the city had no plans of rebuilding the arena at its former site and that the payout would be kept in a fund while the city determines what happens next.
“It’s more effective to put multiple uses together to cut down the operational costs and the construction costs as well,” said McLaughlin. “So from a service provision perspective, we’re always looking at how we can do it most effectively.”
