The Yukon government is suing a Whitehorse construction company after it allegedly failed to address problems in the concrete apron panels it installed at the Whitehorse airport.

Now the government is seeking $3.7 million from construction company Norcope Enterprises for breaching its contract, and $1.78 million from Toronto-based Intact Insurance Company for a performance bond on that contract.

In total, the Yukon is asking for $5.48 million in compensation for the cracking and crumbling apron, the area where airplanes are parked, unloaded and refuelled.

Allegations in the government’s statement of claim, filed at the Yukon Supreme Court last Thursday, have yet to be proved in court.

According to court documents, the airport apron saga unfolded over the spring and summer of 2014.

Norcope was hired in March 2014 to replace concrete apron panels at the Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International Airport. Norcope began work under the $3.7-million contract in April 2014.

The government says it first raised concerns with Norcope about the quality of its concrete job in June.

In July of that year, the government says, it pointed out “major deficiencies” in Norcope’s work. Court documents say the concrete was cracking and spalling, the surface was finished poorly, and joint sealant had failed.

The government asked Norcope to redo the job, as per its contract.

On Aug. 13, the Yukon warned Norcope that if all the problems weren’t fixed, it would consider the company to have reneged on its contract obligations.

Norcope responded six days later, saying the company saw no issues in its work on the apron and wasn’t obligated to redo the job, according to the statement of claim.

On Aug. 21, the Yukon told Intact that Norcope had defaulted on its contract obligations and asked the insurer to step in.

The government says Intact had a number of options: it could compel Norcope to redo the job, or arrange for another contractor to repair the apron, or it could pay back the bond amount or the cost of finishing the repair work.

Intact too, failed to live up to its obligations, says the government.

The government is now looking to recoup the value of its contract with Norcope and its performance bond with Intact.

But Doug Gonder, CEO of Norcope, says this mess was created by the former Yukon Party government and consultants, and that once the Liberals get all the details, they’ll take an altogether different view of the matter.

“They built on ground that they knew was a failure and continued to build,” Gonder said of the former government.

His company stopped the job because of permafrost-related issues, he said, but the Yukon Party government and consultants pushed ahead with the project anyway.

In an interview early this afternoon, Gonder said the biggest problem with the job was that no work was done on the sub-base before the concrete panels were laid overtop.

The sub-base is the layer of material underneath the concrete that helps spread the weight of heavy loads.

“There’s failure all within that zone of the airport, and consultants and engineers should have examined the ground better,” he said.

“There was no geotechnical reports at all on the project.”

Gonder said he would happily fix the problems that should have been dealt with earlier, if the consultants or the government will pay for it.

“We’re quite confident that once everybody sits down, and the right parties are in place to examine the failures or whatever needs to be rectified there to make what’s there work, I think it will be a completely different circumstance,” said Gonder.

This isn’t the first time the Yukon government has taken legal action against Norcope.

In 2013, the two parties reached a private settlement after a dispute over water and sewer work in the Whistle Bend subdivision.

This is the second major lawsuit filed by the Yukon in the last month.

The government made a $39.5-million statement of claim against Corix Water Systems and Chubb Insurance Company of Canada on Feb. 17 over the faulty sewage treatment plant in Dawson City.