Criminal investigation into police HQ still ongoing, targets not yet revealed

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This article was published 01/09/2015 (3717 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The RCMP investigation into the construction of Winnipeg’s police headquarters remains ongoing — and has multiple targets that have not been disclosed.

In December, the Mounties launched a formal criminal investigation into the city’s renovation of the former Canada Post building on Graham Avenue into a new home for the Winnipeg Police Service.

The purchase and renovation of the structure, originally pegged at $135 million, has now cost the city $212 million and is years behind schedule.

The troubled project was the subject of a pair of scathing external audits commissioned by the city and forwarded by Manitoba Justice to the RCMP in August 2014 — along with a whistleblower’s letter alleging doctored invoices and a payment to a member of city council.

The Free Press obtained that letter and published excerpts of it in December 2014. The following week, the RCMP executed a search warrant at the McGillivray Boulevard office of primary police-HQ contractor Caspian Construction and spent three days removing computers and other materials.

On Tuesday, CBC Manitoba reported it had applied to view the contents of that search warrant but was denied in its attempt.

In a decision issued Monday, Manitoba Judge Dale Schille revealed the police-HQ investigation remains underway and also suggested the scope of the investigation is broad in nature.

“In this matter, disclosure of the sealed materials would have the probable impact of frustrating an ongoing investigation. The record discloses voluminous materials, which is in the process of being reviewed. Witnesses are being interviewed and other investigative steps are being taken, and yet others are being considered,” CBC Manitoba quoted Schille as stating in his decision.

“It is clear the release of the requested information would make the targets aware that they were under investigation as well as the identities of other potential targets,” Schille said. “The sealed materials would serve to inform the targets of what is known and what remains unknown as well as planned and contemplated next steps.”

Since the initial Caspian raid in December, the RCMP have declined comment about the police-HQ investigation, other than to confirm that it remains ongoing.

The Mounties have interviewed current and former City of Winnipeg employees in relation to the investigation. City council also voted to waive solicitor-client privilege in order to allow the RCMP to interview city lawyers and external counsel involved in the police-HQ file.

The initial catalyst for the RCMP investigation was a trio of city audits — involving the police-HQ project, city real-estate transactions and the fire-paramedic station construction program — as well as the whistleblower’s letter, which was initially sent to then-justice minister Andrew Swan and deputy justice minister Donna Miller on July 10, 2014.

That letter, obtained by the Free Press, alleged a pair of witnesses went to the Winnipeg Police Service with allegations of doctored police-headquarters invoices, a payment to a member of city council and an instruction to inflate another invoice.

The whistleblower alleged Winnipeg’s police interviewed the first witness in November 2013 but chose not to interview the second witness, who approached police in January 2014.

The first witness alleged invoices were inflated to “the benefit of the firm billing the city” and that “a company involved in the project also allegedly provided funds to a member of council” for reasons that are unclear.

The second witness claimed their firm “was also allegedly asked to invoice the city,” according to the letter.

CBC Manitoba reported this letter is referenced in a heavily redacted version of the Caspian search warrant, obtained during the broadcaster’s unsuccessful attempt to access the entire document, which it said will remain sealed until February 2016.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca