City on track to get legal help in police HQ suit

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This article was published 17/09/2020 (1517 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Winnipeg could soon spend $2.25 million to hire external legal and forensic accounting experts for a legal battle linked to the Winnipeg Police Service Headquarters project.

That amount is not factored in to the 2020 budget for legal services, meaning it would be considered a cost overrun, if council approves it. The funding is in addition to $600,000 already spent on external legal services for the same case.

The city’s lawsuit alleges the project’s price was inflated by a fraudulent scheme. The suit claims Caspian Construction, Adjeleian Allen Rubeli Limited (AAR) and others conspired to implement “a scheme to defraud the city and thereby obtain monies under false pretenses.”

None of the allegations has been proven in court.

Mayor Brian Bowman said he believes the extra funding for legal work is warranted.

“The fact that we’ve got the civil action ongoing now is one way in which we can try to restore some accountability for taxpayers. …Where the city feels fraudulent activities have occurred, it’s obviously incumbent upon us to pursue legal action,” said Bowman.

In 2016, the WPS headquarters at 266 Graham Ave. opened years late after costing about $214 million to build, well above its original $135-million price tag.

The city launched the civil suit in January, which seeks payment for alleged losses and damages.

The mayor said the extra funding will help deal with the complexity of the case, which includes assessing a massive volume of documents related to the RCMP investigation of the project. The city estimates there are about 1 million municipal government records to assess, as well as “tens of millions of pages” of RCMP documents.

A city report states Winnipeg’s legal services department has four full-time civil litigators, who lack resources to do the work in-house.

“In the present case, the size, nature and complexity of the WPS headquarters project requires external legal counsel,” the report states.

Bowman said he believes the investment could result in financial benefit that exceeds its cost, should the legal challenge succeed.

“We’re looking to potentially recoup… tens of millions of dollars and so there is an investment that is required,” he said.

If approved by council, the cost overrun would provide about $1.05 million for forensic accounting services and $1.2 million for external legal services.

Council’s executive policy committee is expected to consider the funding request on Monday.

Joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga