Yukon government settles with Corix over Dawson wastewater plant, and the details are secret

In 2017, the Yukon government filed a $39.5-million dollar lawsuit against Corix Water Systems, the company that built Dawson City's beleaguered sewage treatment plant.

On Friday, the government announced it's settled with Corix and that the amount the government collected from Corix will remain a secret.

A government news release says "neither the Government of Yukon nor Corix will pay the other any amount of money in addition to what has been paid to date."

Community Services Minister John Streicker said the agreement includes a non-disclosure agreement which bars him from saying how much money the government left on the table. He would not say which party insisted upon the non-disclosure agreement.

"We reached an agreement and part of that agreement was to not discuss the terms of that agreement," Streicker said. "And I'm going to honour that because it's my job to to to carry out that role."

Corix did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

'We're letting the company off the hook'

The government filed suit against in February 2017 against Corix Water Systems, which built the plant at a cost of $27 million. Yukon was seeking a total of $39.5 million from Corix and from Chubb Canada, the company that held a $12.5-million performance bond against the project.

"The most important thing here is that we're moving forward because the plant we can see is not working," Streicker said. "And [it's] not going to work for the long term because it's going to cost too much to maintain. It's already costing too much to operate. So we need to get moving ona new plant."

NDP Leader Kate White said Yukonersshould be able to find out how much the failed plant will end up costing taxpayers.

"It almost feels like we're letting the company off the hook to a certain extent," White said.

"We hear that they've reached a settlement where no money will change hands from this point forward. But Yukon citizens are having to pay to install a new sewage treatment plant in Dawson City."

The Yukon Party was in power when the government signed the contract with Corix. A spokespersonsaid the party would wait to hear the government's explanation for the settlement before commenting.

Work on replacement lagoon underway

The plant opened in 2012 and was plagued by problems almost at once. It failed to meet water treatment rules and the Town of Dawson refused to take over operation of the plant as planned from Corix, which ran it for the first year of operation.

The Yukon government stepped in and took over management of the plant. It eventually brought the plant up to standard, but at an operating cost of almost $1 million, triple the cost of similar plants operating in Alaska. The government plans to decommission the plant by 2026.

In January, Dawson town council voted to start design work on a replacement for the current plant that will use a sewage lagoon, a simpler, cheaper technology. The design process includes figuring outwhere the new lagoon will go. In 2008, town residents voted against the location of a proposed lagoon.

Streickersaid he didn't know what role, if any, Corix would have in decommissioning the current plant.

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