More details sought about Missing Worker Memorial plaza project

Questions remain about what’s driving the estimated $725,000 cost to update a memorial project in Centennial Park.

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That uncertainty, and concern about affordability for taxpayers, prompted a recent call to wait, said Nick Dochstader, with the Sarnia and District Labor Council.

“Everyone wants to see this happen, we just don’t want it to be some crazy amount of money that the taxpayers are going to have to foot the bill for,” he said.

At issue is a plaza proposed for the Missing Worker Memorial site by Sarnia Bay.

A sculpture depicting a family in pieces, visible through the silhouette of a missing person and memorializing Sarnia’s history of occupational illness, was created in the late 1990s and installed in the park.

The sculpture was moved after a $13.5-million soil remediation project between 2014 and 2017 to cap asbestos, lead and other contaminants found in the ground. It was reinstalled without the pergola and fountain it had before, and near the base of a newly created berm in the park.

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Now, wet weather makes the ground around the sculpture at times unusable, stymieing efforts to return annual International Day of Mourning ceremonies in April.

Already deferred plaza plansto get more input from a committee including the labor council, came back to council for consideration at budget deliberations Nov. 26.

A decision Nov. 26 about whether or not to allocate money for the project in 2025 was again deferred, unanimously by council, based on a committee request.
“We need some direction,” Mayor Mike Bradley said during deliberations, after Coun. George Vandenberg referenced an email asking for more time.

Committee members want to make sure they’re diligent when it comes to spending public money, Dochstader said.

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“What we wanted as a group was maybe a little more breakdown in that price,” he said.

People are also wary about digging in the park where contaminated soil was capped with geotextile material and topped with a half-meter of clean sand and soil, Dochstader said.

“I think that there was some apprehension about just pulling the trigger on that,” he said.

Details on project costs are needed to see how much of the estimate is related to the plaza, and how much is related to complications because of the capped, contaminated soil, said Sandra Kinart, with Victims of Chemical Valley, another group on the committee.

“It’s not the memorial per se,” she said, adding she likes the plaza proposal.

“The plans that have come out. . . are beautiful,” she said.

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“The price tag is a little stunning to all of us.”

City council in 2023 endorses restoring the memorial.

Plans are to review the costs with the stakeholder group, as per council’s vote, after the 2025 budget is finalized, city spokesperson Steve Henschel said.

When it’s finalized depends on whether Bradley decides to veto, using strong mayor powers, any council amendments to the mayor’s budget. He has until Friday, 10 days after council ended its authorized period to make amendments.

If there are vetoes, council has 15 days to override those with a two-thirds vote.

The Missing Worker sculpture is a memorial to Sarnia’s history of occupational disease, including asbestos-related disease at industrial job sites.

From 2000 to 2009, Sarnia-Lambton’s incidence of mesothelioma in men was about five times the Ontario average, according to the Ontario Cancer Registry.

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