A contractor hired to complete renovations at a waterfront Savona property owned by Tom Gaglardi was told to throw his computer hard drive “in the lake” when federal officials began looking into potential environmental infractions at the site, a judge has been told.
Gaglardi — the 46-year-old owner of the NHL’s Dallas Stars and majority owner of the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers — is charged alongside his father, Bob Gaglardi, and his company, Northland Properties Corporation, with two counts of harmful alteration of a fish habitat in relation to work done on the property in 2010.
The charges allege the accused broke federal law by first clearing and then filling land — actions “that resulted in the harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fish habitat, the foreshore of Kamloops Lake.”
The trial in Kamloops provincial court began on Monday, Jan. 13.
Taking the stand on the trial’s first day was Jim Parks, a contractor who was the site superintendent at the Savona property for its renovations in 2010 and 2011.
“I was told it was a small renovation,” Parks said, noting the property was referred to by Northland employees as “Tom’s Shack.”
“We were told to remove some cupboards and take the carport roof off.”
According to Parks, the scale of the job then began to grow by leaps and bounds.
“Plans started coming in for larger construction,” he said. “We ended up putting on a two-storey addition.”
Parks said other work was also done on the property.
He said he was told Tom’s Shack was owned by Tom Gaglardi, but noted he was paid by Northland.
Court heard Tom Gaglardi visited the site multiple times while construction was ongoing and remained in close contact with Parks.
Parks said he was ordered in early 2011 — as the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans was investigating Gaglardi’s property — by Northland to destroy packing slips for construction plans and to get rid of his computer hard drive.
“I was asked to have my hard drive removed and then to throw the old hard drive in the lake,” Parks said, noting he did not follow the order, which he said came from one of Tom Gaglardi’s employees at Northland.
Court heard Parks’ computer was destroyed in 2012 in a truck crash that landed him in hospital.
According to Parks, he was ordered by Gaglardi to keep working on the project even after the Thompson-Nicola Regional District issued a stop-work order pending the results of the DFO investigation.
Tom and Bob Gaglardi sat quietly in the courtroom on the trial’s first day, occasionally jotting down notes, checking their cellphones and whispering comments to each other.
The Crown expects to call six witnesses during the trial, which is scheduled to wrap up on Wednesday, Jan. 15.
Northland is the company behind the large Sandman Signature hotel development on Lorne Street in downtown Kamloops, which is apparently nearing completion.
