Sabotage suspected at sinking RCMP headquarters in Iqaluit

Maybe, but remember there is a dispute over payment (see here) so I take the allegation of sabotage with a grain of salt!

Story here


A real Northern mystery has settled on the RCMP’s new $18-million Iqaluit headquarters, which is sinking into the permafrost for reasons that almost no one wants to talk about.

More than two years have passed since part of the three-storey detachment office began to crack and settle, yet only one person connected to the project will offer a full explanation – and he says it’s sabotage.

Bill Watt of Arctic Foundations of Canada Inc. (AFC) said the passive foundational cooling system he installed to keep the ground solid was deliberately damaged. No amount of spring runoff, he said, could have caused the havoc he found when he inspected two non-functioning thermosyphons among the 34 he installed in the foundation in 2006.

“Somebody sabotaged two of them,” said Mr. Watt, whose Winnipeg company has installed flat-loop thermosyphon systems in projects all across Northern Canada, including eight other buildings in Iqaluit. “Someone opened the valves, and injected water into the pipes” – which then froze and prevented that part of the system from drawing heat away from the ground, he said.