Canadian Tire has suspended a hydrogen pilot project in Caledon after a Star report revealed the Town of Caledon kept the plans from residents and some officials.

A Star report Tuesday found that Caledon’s fire chief, its deputy fire chief, a sitting councillor running for mayor and the former Ontario Minister who signed off on a special order that allowed Caledon to grant the building permit all said they had no knowledge that hydrogen might be used at the facility, which is currently under construction.

“As of this morning we have temporarily suspended the hydrogen fuel cell pilot in Brampton and Bolton,” Canadian Tire senior vice-president Duncan Fulton stated via email Tuesday afternoon. “And we will be public and transparent about any intention to restart the pilot projects after reviewing additional research and due diligence.”

The massive warehouse distribution centre — which will be the size of the Yorkdale shopping mall — has been mired in controversy since 2012, when Caledon council first dealt with the proposal.

A residents’ group in Bolton, a community in the town of Caledon, is outraged over being kept in the dark about the plan, which involved a hazardous material.

Kim Seipt, a spokesperson for the group Your Voice For Bolton said she does not blame Canadian Tire.

“It’s pretty clear that Canadian Tire is simply trying to do business. But this entire project has been completely mishandled by Caledon officials and the mayor. Why have they continuously kept the public in the dark about key details? Now we find out they were even thinking of producing hydrogen here. Did they plan on ever telling us?”

Canadian Tire told the Star last week that the plans to possibly use hydrogen had been submitted to the Town of Caledon.

Mayor Marolyn Morrison and Caledon chief administrative officer Doug Barnes did not respond to questions on Canadian Tire’s decision Tuesday. Morrison also did not respond to earlier questions on why the public wasn’t told of the hydrogen plan.

According to documents obtained by the Star, Canadian Tire appears to have been transparent about its plans to possibly use hydrogen.

“I understand that the plans for the pilot have evolved over time, but any perception that we’ve hidden something is simply not the way we operate and doesn’t reflect our culture or brand,” Canadian Tire’s Fulton stated on Tuesday.

He added that Canadian Tire has “asked our supply chain executives and engineers to share with us all the studies collected on the safe and efficient use of hydrogen fuel cells. We will be asking for further studies and due diligence — and we have also asked to collect learnings from our competitors in North America — some of whom have been safely using hydrogen fuel cells in their distribution centres for years.”

However, questions remain about why Caledon officials and Morrison, who championed the project, did not inform the public or other officials that were involved with the file about hydrogen use.

Revelations about the hydrogen pilot project are only the latest in ongoing controversy over Canadian Tire’s facility in Caledon. In a surprise move last summer, with council supporting the project and a growing number of residents opposing it, Linda Jeffrey, former minister of municipal affairs and housing (MMAH), issued a rarely used ministerial zoning order.

Such an order overrides all local planning processes and clears the way for a project to move ahead. After the order, the town issued a building permit and Canadian Tire began construction. Then in January, Jeffrey referred her decision to issue the zoning order to the Ontario Municipal Board. The hearing begins next month, but the town has not issued a stop work order.

Jeffrey, who resigned from the provincial government in March to run for mayor of Brampton, said she did not know about the use of hydrogen.

The new facility was the focus of a candidates’ debate Tuesday night in Bolton — a debate attended by only one council incumbent, Councillor Richard Whitehead, who drew applause for entering what one candidate called the lion’s den. Whitehead was later jeered, however, when defending the project.

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“The Canadian Tire debacle is at top of mind for many people here,” Gary Cascone, a mayoral candidate said. “What else has been hidden behind those closed doors?” he asked as some residents in the packed Bolton community centre yelled “shame.”

The Star learned of the plans through Quebec court documents alleging wrongful contract termination by Oakville-based architect Glenn Piotrowski of Civelec Consultants Inc., a firm that specializes in fire protection design.

Piotrowski’s architectural firm was hired by Canadian Tire for the Caledon project. Canadian Tire is not named as a defendant, and there are no allegations of wrongdoing against the company.

Civelec is seeking $678,000 in its lawsuit against Piotrowski and alleges its concerns about hydrogen use at the Caledon facility are one of the reasons its contract was terminated.

In the statement of claim, Civelec alleges that one of the main reasons the company was removed from the project was because it insisted the project needed the highest national fire code designation available for high-hazard industrial buildings. It’s known as an “F-1” designation. Piotrowski, the claim alleges, did not want an F-1 designation, despite the presence of hazardous materials that warranted it.

The allegations have not been proven in court. Piotrowki has not filed a statement of defence.

Piotrowski declined to comment on the allegations after he was contacted by the Star.

“This distribution centre poses extreme fire protection hazards,” reads Civelec’s statement of claim, which was initiated on March 14, 2014. The document states the presence of “corrosive liquids, explosive gases, aerosols” and other flammable materials that would be housed in the distribution facility as a concern.

The statement of claim also alleges that Piotrowski instructed “that hydrogen use was to be ignored until Canadian Tire ‘officially advised’ of its use in the building.”

The statement of claim goes on to say Piotrowski “specifically instructed Civelec not to contact the public authorities.”

The claim also states: “When Canadian Tire insisted on receiving the design requirements for hydrogen fuelling safety, Civelec could only provide a general overview of the safety requirements, as the architectural plans did not contain any specifications for hydrogen.”

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