Mosaic Place continues to show its age, as its two 12-year-old boilers have been out of commission intermittently since late November and need to be replaced.
During its Feb. 14 regular meeting, city council voted unanimously to approve the replacement of the building’s boilers for about $125,000 and use funding in the reserve accounts for Mosaic Place and Yara Centre.
Venue staff discovered that a glycol leak had occurred on Nov. 30, 2021 and traced the leak to one of the two boilers, where they found its heat exchanger had failed, general manager Ryan MacIvor explained during the meeting.
During the following weeks, staff discovered a second glycol leak and took the second boiler out of service to inspect it. They found that that boiler’s heat exchanger had cracked but was still operable.
The glycol system at Mosaic Place is shared with the building’s heating and the refrigeration plant that maintains the artificial ice surfaces.
Spectra Venue Management Services — which manages the building — submitted insurance claims on both boilers because of their failed heat exchangers, said MacIvor. The insurance adjuster approved new heat exchangers, but they come with only six-month warranties.
New boilers have been found but will take more than 12 weeks to arrive because of supply chain issues, whereas heat exchangers could arrive in around nine weeks, he continued. Yet, installing new boilers would provide 10 years of warranty for each machine and the building would not have to rely on a 12-year-old boiler with new heat exchangers and old components.
This is the second time that one of the boilers’ heat exchangers has failed, MacIvor pointed out. In March 2020 — right after the Scotties Tournament of Hearts — boiler 2’s heat exchanger failed but did not lose glycol. A new heat exchanger was installed under a prorated warranty of the original purchase of the boiler.
The warranty for that new heat exchanger was six months.
New boilers will cost $68,875 each, but after factoring in approved insurance claims, PST, GST, insurance deductibles ($20,000), and contingency funds ($13,876), the total cost will be $125,000, MacIvor added.
Coun. Jamey Logan agreed with replacing the old boilers with new ones.
“To me, this recommendation makes sense. If we don’t do this option and we just replace the heat exchanger, we’ll be back here again and have no warranty,” he said. “And (it could happen again) in the middle of a big event perhaps — in the middle of a Scotties in 2024 or whatever we happen to get.”
The advantage of buying new boilers is they will come with 10-year warranties and be composed of all new parts, said Coun. Heather Eby. That’s important since Mosaic Place is over 10 years old and this issue should be addressed properly.
“I would also like to reiterate what Mr. MacIvor said, that this is leveraging insurance dollars, so we are getting really good bang for our buck and brand-new equipment,” she added.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Feb. 28.
