Elliot Lake's chief building official testified Tuesday that based on a 2009 engineer's report from Robert Wood he felt that the Algo Centre Mall was structurally sound.
Bruce Ewald said the Oct. 28, 2009 report, in response to a work order he had issued a month earlier, indicated a review of the building and inspections of areas of significant leakage showed no structural concerns.
He told Crown prosecutor Marc Huneault he believed his order, under the Building Code Act and the city's Property Standards Bylaw, had been complied with and the cited deficiencies had been remedied.
Ewald, who has been in the job since 2008, took the witness stand as Wood's trial on criminal charges stemming from the June 23, 2012 collapse of the mall's third-level parking deck enters its sixth week.
Wood has pleaded not guilty to two counts of criminal negligence causing death and a single count of criminal negligence causing bodily harm.
Lucie Aylwin, 37, and Doloris Perrizzolo, 74, died in the cave-in that also injured dozens of other people.
Wood was employed with the now-defunct Sault-based engineering firm M.R Wright and Associates.
Ewald said after he was contacted by fire chief Paul Officer they conducted an inspection with representatives of the mall on Sept. 24, 2009.
They examined and photographed areas, including the upper level of the mall's lottery ticket kiosk and food court, where the collapse occurred.
The inspection revealed steel beams with rust, missing fire proofing material and evidence of water leakage, Superior Court Justice Edward Gareau heard.
Explaining he had concerns about what they had viewed, Ewald said the fireproofing needed to be replaced and "I thought it would be prudent" for the mall structure to be examined.
His order for remedy of violations was issued the following the day and had an Oct. 30, 2009 deadline.
The order, delivered personally to mall owner Robert Nazarian, required him to have the entire mall structure inspected by a professional, licensed engineer.
Ewald received Wood's report on a structural review of the mall's parking deck structure the following month.
On Nov. 12, 2009, Ewald said he wrote to Nazarian because his office hadn't received a building application or "any indication they were moving forward" on the required fireproofing.
"I wanted them to get started on the fireproofing and get that in place."
When he received the application for the work, Ewald said he required additional information about the beams before issuing the permit.
He told the court he received an e-mail from Wood on Nov. 24 about the fire protection material that was going to be applied and indicating that they were getting setup and prepared to do the work.
A permit for the fireproofing work was issued the following day.
Ewald said he did a walk-through inspection at the mall on Dec.16 and noted missing damaged fire proofing material and contacted Wood, who indicated he would talk to Nazarian.
As a result of what he observed, he said the fireproofing work "was not properly completed."
Near the end of April or in early May 2012, Ewald said he heard about roof work going on at the mall, which "didn't sound like their normal type of work."
"I had some concerns they were adding material that could add to the weight of the mall."
He said his department had a number of conversations with the mall about doing the required work and sent an e-mail indicating that if changes were being made a building permit was needed.
On April 30, 2012, he received a document from the engineering firm that caulking work was being done and "I was satisfied a permit was not required" because it wasn't adding more weight, he said.
Ewald told the court he had viewed work being done on the parking deck, and generally saw workers removing old material from cracks and then recaulking.
He said he saw this "on and off over a two-year period, perhaps half a dozen times."
During cross-examination by Wood's lawyer, Robert MacRae, he said he knew Nazarian had made a proposal to the city in 2011 to remove the rooftop parking, replace it with solar panels and build a new parking lot.
Ewald said he recommended that the parking lot be built first, because he "seriously doubted" the parking lot would be done if the panels were put up first.
He explained to MacRae that having solar panels there concerned him more than parking cars on the roof.
It was not so much the weight, but more the wind shear that would be caused by the panels, Ewald said.
Solar panels would cause a lot more movement than the vehicles, he said.
Ewald said he voiced his concerns to the mall owner and told him a full review was required by an engineer because of the wind shear.
