Merchants who say they suffered because of Canada Line construction in court, wanting compensation

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The Canada Line may have been running for nearly five years now, but the legal troubles stemming from it are not over.

Two hundred business and commercial property owners along Cambie Street have launched a class action lawsuit against TransLink and SNC-Lavalin for losses they claim to have suffered because of construction when the line was built in the few years before the 2010 Olympics.

The case has begun to be heard in court.

Leonard Schein who used to own the Park Theatre claims SNC-Lavalin had an option to build the line using a different method that wouldn’t have caused the same kind of damage.

“Evidence came out yesterday in court from their own internal documents it would have cost them $8 million to bore a tunnel under the Cambie Village versus do the cut-and-cover method that they used,” says Schein.

“A lot of merchants lost their business. They had mortgages on their homes; there was a lot of tragedy that happened to the small businesses on Cambie Village,” he adds.

Another business owner won more than half a million dollars in 2009, but that ruling was ultimately overturned.