Scores of tenants displaced from an apartment building in James Bay will likely be out of their units for a month, according to the company doing asbestos-related remediation at the site.
Pinchin West is continuing work to meet Island Health safety requirements, and tenants have been told the company expects re-occupancy approval late in the coming week, tenant Paul Mitchell told the Times Colonist.
Tenants from about 60 units in Charter House at 435 Michigan St. were moved to the Doubletree Hotel at the end of January after elevated levels of asbestos were detected in settled dust samples.
Residents were initially told they would likely be out of their units for two weeks. They will not be allowed back until Island Health signs off on asbestos test results.
Hotel accommodations paid for by Starlight Property Holdings Inc., which owns the 1960s building and several others in Victoria, will continue, with rents in abeyance until tenants return.
Mitchell said he finds living in a single hotel room without a kitchen tiresome, although he’s been provided with $200 for food per week.
It’s the second delay in the return of the residents.
“What I believe this indicates is that Island Health is holding them to a much higher standard of testing than, for example, the very quick testing that was done when my suite was contaminated in September,” Mitchell said.
A renovation crew voluntarily stopped work in December. The building was also the subject of two WorkSafe B.C. stop-work orders last year.
The orders involved compliance and health and safety issues regarding asbestos surveys, containment and ventilation.
“The violations were small disturbances of asbestos and each employer complied with the orders and the stop-works were lifted,” said Trish Chernecki of WorkSafe B.C.
The agency considers any level of disturbed airborne asbestos hazardous to workers.
NDP MLA Carole James said she cannot find any requirement that tenants be informed of asbestos in their living quarters.
