By The News Team
No, Ryerson has not spent over $200,000 on Gould Street, nor will the school be paying for the repairs.
Contrary to a CityNews broadcast Monday night, Ryerson only paid out a total of $111,000 for the two-part disastrous Gould Street paint job, Ryerson spokesperson Michael Forbes said. Forbes also said the contractor who carried out the painting has “signed off” to cover the full costs of scraping and repaving the road.
The paint job had originally been projected to cost $195,000. Ryerson paid $25,000 for the first phase, when the road was painted gold, and then $86,000 for the second phase. However, once it was clear the paint was peeling, the school stopped paying the contractor, Forbes said.
The CityNews broadcast also featured an interview with Fiona Chapman, manager of the Pedestrian Project at the City of Toronto, who said the cost of the scraping and repaving would be $37,000, taxes included. However, in an interview with The Eyeopener, Chapman stressed that the figure was an estimate and that the total cost would not be known until the job is finished.
“A lot of factors could change the final cost,” Chapman said, citing variables like the time it would take to finish the repaving, equipment needed and material prices.
Chapman said in both interviews that the bill for the job would be issued to Ryerson, but Forbes explained that the paint job contractor would be giving the school the money and that no Ryerson funds will be spent returning Gould Street to its former glory.
“Ryerson will not be paying anything,” he said
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