City committee declines to vote on more police HQ spending

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This article was published 22/11/2013 (4366 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Faced with “too many unanswered questions” about Winnipeg’s over-budget police headquarters, three city councillors effectively refused to decide whether or not city council should allow more spending to proceed.

After a 2.5-hour session on Friday afternoon, council’s downtown committee declined to vote for or against a finance-department request for another $17.2 million to complete Winnipeg’s police headquarters, a project that now comes with a total price tag of $211 million.

For the first time since additional cost increases were disclosed in October, councillors had the opportunity to question city staff about the complex renovation of the former Canada Post building, a job originally procured under a conventional construction model but later amended to what contractors now describe as something more akin to a “design-build” model, which places more oversight in the hands of contractors.

Couns. Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan), Jenny Gerbasi (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) and Mike Pagtakhan (Point Douglas) grilled chief financial officer Mike Ruta, contracted project manager Ossama AbouZeid, police employee Randy Benoit and Ottawa-based design consultant Peter Cheng – the latter speaking via Skype – about issues ranging from the lack of disclosure of problems to council to the real-estate fees associated with the purchase of the Canada Post building to the decision not to account for furniture and equipment in the original cost projection.

Couns. Paula Havibeck (Charleswood-Tuxedo) and John Orlikow (River Heights-Fort Garry) also appeared in delegation, complaining they had dozens of unanswered questions of their own.

Gerbasi said she would not support spending any more money on the project unless council agrees to audit the police headquarters. On Wednesday, council voted 9-7 to reject such a move.

In the end, the committee voted unanimously to make no recommendation, which lobs the ball in the court of executive policy committee next week.

Browaty and Pagtakhan, who voted against an audit, said Friday they are more open to the idea. Browaty, however, said he would prefer city staff to simply answer his questions.