If you listened carefully this week you might have heard a collective sigh of relief reverberate across town upon news that construction of the Library and Cultural Centre was finally completed.
After three and a half years of missed deadlines and false promises, library staff began to move stacks of books and pieces of furniture into the new building, located at 500 Robson Street, June 8.
The beleaguered project, which is $1.5 million over budget, had become the butt of endless jokes in town over the past few years and quite frankly an embarrassment to the community.
While it鈥檚 great to see tenants finally move into the new building, it鈥檚 important that the municipality learns from this disaster and never lets it happen again.
Fortunately the town has a new person at the helm who has proven he can work with others to get the job done.
Mark Fercho, the town鈥檚 chief administrative officer, inherited the troubled project when he joined the municipality in August 2014, and he should be commended for completing the project given the circumstances he faced.
As many people will recall the building was originally slated to open in January 2013, but over the course of the next three and half years, numerous construction errors and unforeseen issues delayed the project鈥攚ith the roof, walls, floors, stairs, windows and mechanical system all being improperly constructed and rebuilt.
As a result groups like the Jasper Artists Guild, Habitat for the Arts, l鈥橝ssociation Canadienne-Fran莽aise de l鈥橝lberta聽(ACFA), and the library itself, were essentially homeless, operating in temporary locations, struggling to survive.
With construction blunders and missed deadlines now behind us, it鈥檚 time to formally review what went wrong and ultimately find out who should be held responsible for the cost overruns and the delays.
In December 2014, the municipality said once construction of the building was completed a mediation process would sort out which party was responsible for each of the cost overruns and delays.
While this is an important and necessary step, the municipality should make these findings public to identify who was at fault and how the project managed to become a shining example of mismanagement.
Not only would publishing the findings help close an ugly chapter in the town鈥檚 history, it would also help the community regain some confidence in its local government.
It鈥檚 about time the community learns why this happened so we don鈥檛 repeat the same mistakes in the future.
