Politicians kept out of the loop

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This article was published 22/12/2015 (3890 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Senior civic officials withheld information from city councillors about serious structural and design problems at the Deacon water-treatment plant.

In a lawsuit, the city says the plant had a series of “significant” and “catastrophic” failures — beginning in August 2012 and continuing for another 12 months — that stemmed from a leaking roof.

That resulted in some equipment seizing up and others exploding, threatening employee safety.

At no time since August 2012 were reports about the problems submitted to council committees overseeing the water and waste department: the finance and public works committees. Nor was any report given to the executive policy committee or council.

Several councillors contacted by the Free Press said they only learned about the problems at the Deacon plant after reading the news story in the Free Press.

“I was angry when I saw that,” Coun. Jeff Browaty said of last week’s news reports. “Both the previous council and this council have not been updated on it. It’s unacceptable.

“The plant opened to much fanfare and clinking of champagne glasses,” Browaty (North Kildonan) said. “It was a $300-million, state-of-the-art plant. It was more expensive than the MTS Centre and twice as large. We assumed it was working perfectly, and it’s surprising to read they are having issues.”

Browaty said the department’s secrecy about the facility causes him to wonder if any of the problems with drinking water — brown water and false coliform readings that resulted in a city-wide boil-water advisory earlier this year and in one neighbourhood in 2014 — are related to the issues identified in the lawsuit.

“The department is assuring us our water continues to be safe, but now we know there are substantial issues,” they haven’t disclosed. “This has been handled very poorly.”

Browaty said now that the plant’s problems are public, he expects the water and waste department will submit a report to council.

“If they don’t, one will be requested,” he said.

Diane Sacher, director of water and waste, has been on an unexplained leave of absence since March.

Senior administrators — CAO Doug McNeil and COO Michael Jack (who had been acting CAO) — did not respond to requests for interviews on the department’s decision to withhold details about the plant’s problems from councillors.

Sacher has been head of the department since November 2011. Before that, she served as manager of water treatment.

Browaty has been a member of the executive policy committee since November 2010, first appointed by former mayor Sam Katz and reappointed by Mayor Brian Bowman.

Couns. Russ Wyatt (former finance chairman) and Brian Mayes (former public works chairman) said they were never briefed about the plant’s problems.

Dan Vandal, a former member of the executive policy committee and former public works chairman who is now a Liberal MP, said he was never briefed about the plant’s problems and only learned about them from the Free Press story.

The only current member of council who said they knew about problems at the plant is Coun. Janice Lukes. She said she was given an internal report about two weeks ago and was instructed to authorize the lawsuit.

“Papers ended up on my desk and there was a sticky note that said ‘sign it,’ ” Lukes (South Winnipeg-St. Norbert) said. “I called the (city solicitor) to ask what it was about and she said to read it first.

“I read the report and I thought, ‘wow.’ “

Lukes has been chairwoman of the public works committee since November 2014. Until recently, the committee oversaw the water and waste department.

Lukes said she was alarmed by the language in the report that described the problems plaguing the new facility. She assumed council or one of its standing committees would have been briefed about the issues because problems were reported years ago.

“There were no briefings, nothing,” Lukes said. “I found that a little bit odd.”

Bowman recently established a new committee at city hall to deal with the water and waste department and other environment issues, headed by Mayes.

Mayes said he met with the acting director of the department Monday but no explanation was given as to why members of council were kept in the dark — and no explanation was requested.

“We met (Monday) to make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen again,” Mayes (St. Vital) said, adding the new committee was established to focus oversight on the water and waste department.

“It’s a fair question: why wasn’t there a report?” Mayes said, adding it’s not known what information Sacher shared with other senior administrators or Katz.

“All I can say is looking forward, we’ll have more oversight.”

Mayes said he doesn’t know if the department will present a report about the plant’s problems to the new committee.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca