It’s been three and a half years since Kelowna, B.C., resident Helen Furuya lost her husband Brad Zawislak.
“Not a day goes by that we don’t think about him,” said a tearful Furuya.
The 43-year-old father of two tragically lost his life when a crane came crashing down at a construction site in downtown Kelowna on July 12, 2021.
Five men were killed.
Cailen Vilness, Jared Zook and brothers Eric and Patrick Stemmer were the four construction workers who died.
Zawislak was working at an engineering consulting firm in adjacent office building at the time.
“He didn’t deserve this and I just hope this park can be built,” Furuya told Global News.
Everything to build The RISE Memorial at a park not far from where the tragedy occurred is ready to go, but the project hit a snag last week after the province denied an application grant for $150,000 to get it started.
“It’s unfortunate,” Furuya said. “It feels like perhaps it was glazed over.”
Last week, the minister responsible, Spencer Chandra Herbert, stated he is open to meeting with organizers after Global News started making inquiries.
A meeting has now been now set for later this month.
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On Wednesday, Global News asked whether financial support may be offered but in an email the ministry would only say the “the minister is looking forward to discussing the important project and what the needs are.”
On the streets of Kelowna, residents who spoke to Global News weren’t impressed.
“I think that is disgusting,” said Gary Wilson. “Human lives should be honoured and respected and I think the government should be doing that.”
Nicolle Willams, another Kelowna resident, also expressed disappointment.
“I think we should definitely be supporting memorials a lot more especially when tragedies happen in our town,” said Williams.
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The community has already raised more than $160,000 and local companies have stepped forward to do the work at minimal costs.
Those companies include Mountain Home Services, the general contractor.
“We came in pretty much at break even for our company just to really reduce costs,” said Brent Tremblay, Mountain Home Services general manager. “There’s a lot of other community members that are involved that are just donating the time of their people and some of the materials they have to ensure the project gets into the ground.”
But the clock is ticking to get the project started next month as planned so that it’s finished by the four-year anniversary of the tragedy on July 12.
“We’ve all carved out time to try and make sure this project happens on schedule for that important day,” Tremblay said. “If it gets delayed, we all have to go back and book those schedules which could delay the project up to a year.”
That delay would add to an already frustrating wait for the findings of the criminal investigation to be released.
“How can you move forward when you don’t know the facts,” Furuya said. “I deserve to know the facts and so does the community.”
It was February 2024 when Kelowna RCMP announced it had completed its comprehensive investigation into the collapse of the crane.
A report was submitted to the BC Prosecution Service (BCPS) for charge assessment for criminal negligence causing death, but since then, no further information was released.
