Just how hooped is this downtown Yellowknife building?

There’s almost no public information about a fuel spill that closed a Yellowknife government building. Internal emails suggest it’ll be closed for most of the year – at least.

The Nova Plaza on 52 Street is privately owned. The federal and territorial governments each lease office space in the building for dozens of employees.

When the four-storey building didn’t reopen after Christmas, notices pinned to its door told the public nothing about the reason why. The NWT government acknowledged there had been a “fuel leak,” and a fuel oil leak measuring 10 litres showed up on the territory’s spills database.

Since then, nobody has had much to say. More than half a month after the spill, the building’s doors are still closed and people are working elsewhere.

Approached for an update this week, the NWT’s Department of Infrastructure referred questions to the Nova Plaza’s landlord.

The department identified that landlord as 1259287 BC Ltd, based in Surrey, BC.

Reached by email, the landlord identified itself as Sun’s Holdings. Clayton Ng, a member of the Sun’s Holdings management team, wrote: “The investigation is still going on and damage assessment is not done yet. I will update you when things are clear.”

The Department of Education, Culture and Employment, which has had to move its Income Assistance and Seniors Home Heating Subsidy offices from the Nova Plaza, acknowledged an enquiry from Cabin Radio on Monday seeking an update, but did not subsequently respond. The department did respond after this article was published, saying questions were “best directed to the landlord.”

The Department of Environment and Climate Change, which maintains the public spills database, did not immediately respond to a Tuesday afternoon request for an updated spill figure if one was available. Again, the department did respond after this article was published, saying the leak “falls outside of ECC legislative authority” and staff had no updated figure for its size.

How bad is it, really?

At the moment, the public record still states this was an estimated 10-litre spill.

Internal emails paint a different picture.

An email from an employee at facilities management firm BGIS, which manages the day-to-day running of the Nova Plaza, stated: “We are awaiting validation but understand that the diesel fuel released could be up to 3,600 litres.”

This week, Public Services and Procurement Canada – the federal agency that oversees buildings in which federal employees work – told staff it is “anticipating the loss of use [of Nova Plaza] to be extended to eight months, based upon the information received to date.”

In its email to staff, PSPC said there remained “many unknowns around the extent of damage, landlord insurance coverage and remediation scope of work.”

On Sunday, a manager at BGIS sent an email to various territorial and federal employees warning them not to go into the building “due to the high level of contaminant.” So far, employees haven’t even had the chance to retrieve computer equipment.

At the time of sending that email, BGIS was awaiting test results from Stantec Engineering. Tests of the air in the building had already come back “quite high,” BGIS wrote a few days earlier, warning that anyone who does enter the building should be wearing “a respirator with organic vapour cartridges.”

PSPC separately told federal workers: “We continue to reinforce the messaging that the building condition is not considered safe for entry and all contents are considered to have a high level of contamination due to fumes.”

On Thursday last week, BGIS said the landlord was awaiting an update from its insurance company, after which “a remediation plan can be developed.”

In its latest internal update, BGIS said people involved in the cleanup should “anticipate pressure from the public based on critical service delivered from this location, specifically to the GNWT.”

In emails seen by Cabin Radio, BGIS had not appeared to provide a timeline for the reopening of the Nova Plaza.

BGIS instead simply stated the building “remains closed until further notice.”

Correction: January 17, 2024 – 14:19 MT. We initially stated the Student Financial Assistance office was one of those affected by the leak. It’s actually the Seniors Home Heating Subsidy team (among others).