Stalled residential proposal’s developer baffled by city councillor’s disavowals

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This article was published 19/07/2023 (1043 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Coun. John Orlikow insists he didn’t delay a residential development proposal in northwest Fort Garry, but the man behind the proposal, who has fought the city for years to build on the property, says it’s clear why a judge determined he did.

That’s why Parker lands developer Andrew Marquess said he doesn’t know how Orlikow can continue to make that claim, based on evidence that emerged during a Manitoba Court of King’s Bench trial.

Justice Shauna McCarthy found two civic planning officials deliberately stalled the Fulton Grove development project mostly at the behest of the River Heights-Fort Garry councillor and awarded Marquess $5 million in damages.

“I’m confused how that could be,” Marquess told the Free Press. “It was a seven-week trial. It was a long trial. There were thousands of pages of documents. The information which led the judge to the comments was in exhibits and a lot of it was internal civic documents. Everything is backed up by testimony on oath or documents.

“I scratch my head a little bit with how that reconciles with what happened in the past.”

Last week, in the wake of McCarthy’s decision, Orlikow denied he had done anything wrong.

“There was never any comment about trying to stymie any development there,” he said. “My understanding was, and still is, there was no delay on my part. I had nothing to do with that.”

McCarthy ruled that former chief planner Braden Smith and senior city planner Michael Robinson were liable for “misfeasance in public office.”

She said the pair had deliberately delayed progress because of “primarily the wishes and demands of the area councillor, and the desire of some public servants to accommodate those wishes.”

Orlikow, who wasn’t called to testify and wasn’t named as a defendant in the case, said he should have been given a head’s up about the case by the city’s lawyers so he could defend himself by giving his side of the story.

“I’m being accused of doing things that I never did,” he said.

But evidence emerged during the trial showing that Orlikow met or emailed civic bureaucrats numerous times between June 2014 and April 2017, saying once he wanted help from the public service to preserve the forest on the site and the administration didn’t have to work on the developer’s plan until the concerns were dealt with. On another occasion, Orlikow expressed concern that if the proposed residential densities were approved it could affect the price the city would have to pay to expropriate part of the area to build a retention pond.

Marquess acquired the 47-acre parcel in a swap with the city for land he owned in Fort Rouge.

In an April 6, 2017 email, when Orlikow and several civic employees were asked for their feedback on the development proposal, Orlikow sent back a list of 11 concerns, including “does not appear to be designed as a complete community,” and “traffic analysis… and impact on Beaumont (neighbourhood) required.”

When Robinson asked Orlikow if it was OK to share his comments with the developer or if it was meant to be internal only, Orlikow responded, “internal only.”

“I did not direct the delay in the application,” Orlikow said this week. “I wanted to get answers to some of my questions and hoped some of my concerns could be addressed, which is part of my role as ward councillor.”

But it’s also not the first time the same development — and the role of councillors, including Orlikow — has been under the scrutiny of a code of conduct investigation or a judge.

In January 2019, Toronto-based lawyer Gregory Levine looked into complaints made by Marquess about how Orlikow tried to resolve a dispute between the developer and opponents protesting the proposal.

While Levine found Orlikow’s actions didn’t breach any code of conduct rules, he said the councillor’s attempt to broker a sale of part of the land back to the city went beyond his responsibilities as a city councillor.

“Is determining an interest in land purchase sales in his ward really part of the council member’s role?” Levine wrote in the 10-page report.

“There is real potential for misuse of office and improper influence in such activities.”

Later that year, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Candace Grammond found Orlikow, as part of the City Centre Community Committee, and the City of Winnipeg, in contempt for violating a court order over the developer’s Parker lands project.

The judge found they didn’t follow her previous order to consider the developer’s secondary plan for the project.

“I do not accept that the respondents, on the whole, acted in good faith,” Grammond said in the August 2019 decision.

Marquess said a new application to rezone and subdivide the site will soon be made with the city. The developer published a full page advertisement in last Saturday’s Free Press and is currently seeking feedback from the community on the plan through an online survey.

The proposal is to put 1,918 housing units — a mix of several-storey-high apartment buildings, duplexes, four-plexes and single-family homes on the south side of the CN Rail line between Waverley Street and Pembina Highway.

The city’s only dedicated rapid transitway runs right past the entire property and city policy is to encourage higher-density in areas it services.

As for Orlikow, he said when the project gets to city council he will review it with “an open mind.”

“It has been 12 years. I just want this to go forward. It is just a big field of mud right now. Let’s move ahead now. I may support it, I may not, but I will keep an open mind.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.

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