A Montreal-based circus company, Cirque Éloize, lost millions of dollars’ worth of equipment, costumes and archives when a city water main broke and flooded its storage facility last month.
The company’s theatre director says the city should bear responsibility.
“Financial compensation, because we lost a lot,” said Jeannot Painchaud of what the company is seeking.
The circus tour has been suspended for six months due to water damage, which will not be entirely covered by insurance, he said.
“We cannot think about going back on tour. We have to take care of all of this. Find a new warehouse, which we don’t have,” he said.
Performances will continue in the circus’s studio because he said that building was not affected.
The circus company’s shows are known around the world, and most of its equipment was stored on Notre-Dame Street. On Aug. 16, the water main break created a massive geyser on René-Lévesque Boulevard, east of de Lorimier Avenue, just before 6 a.m. and flooded nearby streets.
Several businesses and homes were affected, including La Morin mustard company, whose owner Julien Morin said losses could reach $1 million.
Painchaud gave CBC News a tour of the circus company’s storage facility, showing how high water reached, destroying electric consoles, lighting, stage sets and more.
For him, the worst part is losing the archives. All of it is gone, he said.
“It’s a little bit heartbreaking because it’s 32 years of history,” he said, noting his team has been in discussions with the city and “so far, we have a great collaboration. I think they will help us. They need to help us. For sure, it’s their full responsibility.”
Cirque Éloize was forced to suspend touring for six months when a major Montreal water main burst in August near their storage units — flooding their sets, equipment and costumes.
Marketing company suffers big losses
Others who share the building with the circus company are dealing with similar consequences.
Eric Jutras owns a marketing company called Groupe Promo-Staff. He said about four feet of water accumulated after the main broke. There was no electricity afterward, and the building was condemned for a time. He said his company is looking for a new location.
Jutras said not only did he lose equipment and promotional materials, but he had to cancel events. Among those events, his company gives away soccer balls to clubs and teams. About 3,000 soccer balls were contaminated with mould and needed to be thrown away, he said.
He estimates he’s lost at least $130,000, but he hasn’t had time to make a full accounting because he’s been trying to clean up the mess and find a new location.
He said his insurance is covering the losses, but it’s been a “logistics nightmare.”
Those affected are still waiting to hear what compensation they’ll get from the city.
City of Montreal spokesperson Hugo Bourgoin said the city is sensitive to the consequences experienced by the population in the wake of the pipe bursting.
“The affected citizens had 15 days to file a claim for material damage,” he said in an email. “The analysis of the claims is underway and will take a few weeks.”
The large water main that burst was due to be inspected in the coming months, the city has since said. Soon after the incident, Chantal Morissette, the city’s director of water services, said the city was keeping an eye on the water main.
“There was deterioration there and that’s the reason why the water main was under surveillance,” Morissette said at the time. “The next inspection was coming up.”
It has since been revealed that the portion of water main that broke was expected to last another decade, according to an analysis ordered by the city after the pipe’s last inspection in 2018.
Morissette said a five-to-seven-year delay between inspections is the norm, depending on the state of a water main.
During a technical briefing last month, Morissette said steel cables providing structure to the pipe’s cement casing had, at that point, been degrading at a rate of one or two per year, an industry standard.
But, somehow, that pace accelerated in the six years since 2018.
“We are looking for what caused the conduit to deteriorate more quickly,” she said.
