Province moving forward with Winnipeg police HQ construction inquiry By: Carol Sanders Posted: 5:52 PM CDT Monday, Oct. 28, 2024

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Premier Wab Kinew is pushing ahead with an inquiry into the construction of the Winnipeg Police Service headquarters that cost taxpayers nearly $100 million more than estimated and raised questions about bribery and fraudulent billing.

“Right now we are considering who the lead commissioner would be,” Kinew said Monday at an unrelated event. The premier said the government has draft terms of reference for the inquiry, timeline and budget and that he’ll be sharing that information with the public “as soon as we can.”

The purchase and retrofit of the former Canada Post building on Graham Avenue, originally estimated at $135 million when it was approved in 2009 ended up costing $214 million when it officially opened in June 2016.

A criminal investigation did not result in charges, but a civil case determined that former city chief administrative officer Phil Sheegl accepted a $327,000 bribe in 2011 from Caspian Construction, the project’s general contractor.

Prior to the October 2023 provincial election, Kinew promised, if elected, the NDP would hold an inquiry to get to the bottom of both the police headquarters scandal and the decision not to lay criminal charges.

“I think there’s a really important public need for us to understand what went wrong here — what mistakes were made and, most importantly, to look ahead to the future,” the premier told reporters Monday.

“How could we prevent something like that, or some of these situations that have been described in the media and in court — how could we avoid repeating those in the future?”

When asked about the scope of the inquiry — its focus and how to prevent it from becoming unwieldy and over budget — Kinew said its goal will be to focus on the “public good.”

“At the end of the day, we just want the average Manitoban to have confidence that when these big public construction projects are being pursued, that you know that things are going to be dealt with in an above-board fashion,” the premier said.

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“It’s about trust, it’s about good governance, and it’s about fiscal responsibility.”

Choosing the right commissioner to lead the inquiry is critical, he said.

“It really will be that commissioner who is going to, over the course of the inquiry, ensure that we hit the goal of what we we’re trying to accomplish here while staying within the parameters of timeline and budget,” Kinew said.

He wouldn’t say how many names are on the list of those being considered for the job or if the government has looked beyond the province.

“It’s about trust, it’s about good governance, and it’s about fiscal responsibility.”–Wab Kinew

“We want them to be beyond reproach,” the premier said, adding the process and the commissioner’s recommendations need to restore Manitobans’ confidence.

While the former Progressive Conservative government didn’t rule out ever holding an inquiry, it said it wouldn’t proceed while any cases involving the police headquarters were before the courts.

In July 2023, the Manitoba Court of Appeal rejected Sheegl’s appeal of a lower court order, agreeing he had accepted a $327,000 bribe from Caspian owner Armik Babakhanians in exchange for sharing confidential information and favouring Caspian’s bid in awarding the construction contract.

Besides ordering Sheegl to pay back the bribe and interest to the city, the high court also ordered him to also return the $250,000 in severance he was paid after resigning in 2013, plus interest, $100,000 in punitive damages and court costs at both the lower and appeal levels, totalling about $1.1 million.

“I think we are in a position to move ahead,” Kinew said Monday.

“We have been taking time to make sure the terms of reference are strong and solid and that more has to do with ensuring we’re getting the scope right — and reflecting the current reality that Winnipeg and municipalities have to operate under right now.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.

Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.