Selinger, Ashton deny leaking confidential Omnitrax info to OCN First Nation

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/09/2016 (3535 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In a new statement of defence, former Manitoba premier Greg Selinger and one of his top ministers deny any interference with Omnitrax Canada’s negotiations to sell the Port of Churchill.

In court filings in the lawsuit filed by the Denver-based railway company against the government of Manitoba, Selinger and Steve Ashton, the statement of defence asks for the lawsuit to be thrown out and all court costs be covered by Omnitrax.

The lawsuit filed in April — just days before the provincial election — alleges the NDP government, Selinger and Ashton broke a non-disclosure agreement by giving confidential information to a competing First Nation. During that period last December, Omnitrax was negotiating a deal to sell the Hudson Bay Railway and Port of Churchill to a consortium of 10 northern Manitoba First Nations.

“The unlawful and wrongful conduct of the defendants… amounts to a deliberate, high-handed, wanton and outrageous interference with the plaintiff’s right,” states the claim, filed in Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench.

The lawsuit alleges the defendants disclosed confidential information to accounting firm MNP LP and Opaskwayak Cree Nation, a First Nation about 630 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg. It seeks an unspecified amount in damages for the alleged breach.

The statement of defence denies all the allegations, including that Selinger or Ashton, who was the infrastructure and transportation minister at the time, directed MNP LP or OCN to conduct a financial analysis for the Omnitrax deal.

“The defendant denies having given any confidential information to anyone beyond the scope of the confidentiality agreement,” says the statement of defence, filed Aug. 16.

It asks that both names be removed from the suit, stating that “they were not parties to the confidentiality agreement.”

Lawyers representing the government, Selinger and Ashton were to appear in court last Thursday. The case was adjourned to a future date that has not been set. The NDP declined to comment on a case before the courts, as did the province.

The current status of the deal between Omnitrax and the First Nations consortium — led by Mathias Colomb First Nation — remains a mystery. It was first announced in January, with both sides speaking confidently that the purchase of the port and railway would soon be complete.

However, there were no further announcements and the deal appears to have been derailed by Omnitrax’s announcement in July it was closing the port and reducing freight service by half, to one train a week. Government officials and Omnitrax have been silent on what the future holds for Canada’s only Arctic deep-water port.

Omnitrax Canada president Merv Tweed, federal Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains and Chief Arlen Dumas of Mathias Colomb First Nation did not respond to requests for comment.

Tweed told the Free Press last month the company has a pretty solid circumstantial case that the former NDP government leaked confidential financial information to OCN.

Tweed said the company was caught off guard when OCN sent a competing proposal to Ottawa for the purchase of the port and railway. Tweed said the First Nation had never signed a non-disclosure agreement to get access to detailed financial information that would be essential for any purchase proposal.

Although Omnitrax has not seen the OCN proposal, the company strongly suspects the former NDP government shared the information it had, contrary to a confidentiality agreement, Tweed said.

“How do you make a business proposal without business information?” Tweed said. “How can you do that without talking to us?”

— with files from Dan Lett

kristin.annable@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @kristinannable