The construction company renovating Union Station is in financial trouble

There are only two true certainties in this life: Death and construction at Union Station.

Like cockroaches, crocodiles and very cheap hamburgers, the dust surrounding Toronto's most important transit hub simply will not die.

Approved more than 10 years ago, the revitalization project was originally meant to wrap sometime in 2014. It's now five years past that deadline and the station is nowhere near being good to go, or at least doesn't look, sound or smell that way. It's also far, far over budget.

The situation is quite literally a joke.

Last person to use Toronto’s Union Station pre-construction dies of old age https://t.co/KK32BkQtct pic.twitter.com/IH1o7sYAw6

— The Beaverton (@TheBeaverton) March 7, 2019

"What's the holdup?" people often ask as they walk among hard-hatted workers on Front Street. 

The City of Toronto blames a contractor called Bondfield Construction as the source of its backlog woes—the same Bondfield Construction that earlier this week filed for creditor protection in an Ontario Superior courtroom.

Bondfield is asking the court to block creditors from taking action until it can complete some of the many construction projects currently on its docket and rebalance its finances.

Completion of Union Station was recently pushed back again to the end of 2019. Now, even that seems uncertain: the main contractor, Bondfield Construction, has filed for creditor protection. https://t.co/f6gFeL41r1

— Trevor Heywood (@hey_trev) March 7, 2019

The Globe and Mail reports that Bondfield holds more than $1 billion in construction contracts for "projects involving major public-sector institutions across Ontario" at present, including Union Station.

The company is also facing a series of lawsuits related to breaches of contract, non-payment, and was even charged under the Ontario Fire Code last month.

Toronto Fire laid charges against both Bondfield and the City of Toronto after dangerous overcrowding at Union Station made headlines in December.

Based in Vaughan, Bondfield wants to continue operating while it restructures its debts, and hopes a court order will help with that.

For the sake of walking through Union Station one day without a zillion signs and detours, I hope they can keep working too. But faster.

by Lauren O'Neil via blogTO