Inquiries on police HQ, Manitoba pandemic response to come, Kinew tells Free Press By: Dan Lett Posted: 1:15 PM CDT Monday, Oct. 23, 2023 Last Modified: 5:08 PM CDT Monday, Oct. 23, 2023 Updates

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The newly minted NDP government will call a public inquiry into the controversial decision by Manitoba Justice not to lay criminal charges against key civic officials and contractors involved in the Winnipeg Police Service headquarters scandal.

In an exclusive interview with the Free Press, Premier Wab Kinew said his government will live up to pledges made while in opposition to hold inquiries into the WPS headquarters affair and the province’s pandemic response.

Kinew said he remains concerned there are many unanswered “factual questions” about the police headquarters scandal that will require an inquiry.

“I do think it is in the public interest for us to figure out what happened here,” Kinew said. “In large part, because while there might be some measure of accountability coming through the civil processes… I do think there is (a) responsibility to figure out how do we avoid having a situation like this with so many unanswered questions in the future?”

The project, originally pegged at $135 million, began after the city purchased the former Canada Post office tower and warehouse at Smith Street and Graham Avenue in 2009 for the purpose of renovating it to become the new home of the Winnipeg Police Service to replace the deteriorating Public Safety Building on Princess Avenue.

The downtown renovation project’s final cost came in at more than $214 million. A criminal probe was launched after whistleblowers from the city came forward alleging fraudulent billing and irregularities with the awarding of contracts.

NDP first committed to a public inquiry as far back as 2021, after obtaining and releasing a briefing note that confirmed the RCMP — which devoted five years in two different criminal investigations into the scandal — wanted charges laid against principals in the procurement and construction of the building.

However, in 2019 after reviewing volumes of evidence produced by the two investigations, Manitoba Justice declined to lay charges.

That decision sparked concern after a 2022 civil proceeding brought by the City of Winnipeg — which relied heavily on evidence collected by the RCMP — found that former Winnipeg chief administrative officer Phil Sheegl was guilty of “a breach of trust and a breach of loyalty” for accepting a $327,000 bribe from the project’s contractor and splitting it evenly with former mayor Sam Katz.

Sheegl was ordered to pay the city $1.1 million, a sum that includes the value of the bribe, severance payments he received after quitting his job at the city and court costs. Sheegl’s appeal was dismissed in July.

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In the months since the civil decision was announced, there have been repeated calls for an inquiry from prominent sources including former mayor Brian Bowman, Katz’s successor. Those calls were renewed last March, after the city voted to accept a $21.5 million out-of-court settlement with Caspian Projects, the principal contractor on the project; owner Armik Babakhanians was a friend of both Sheegl and Katz.

Former Progressive Conservative premier Heather Stefanson did not rule out an inquiry, but kept delaying a final decision until all collateral legal matters had played out. She continued to dodge questions after Sheegl’s appeal was dismissed.

Mayor Scott Gillingham was not available for an interview Monday. In a written statement, he noted council voted to ask the province to hold an inquiry into the project years ago.

“I have consistently said Winnipeggers deserve to know what happened on this project and why things went wrong. Council’s 2017 request for an inquiry still stands, and I look forward to hearing more from the provincial government on the timing and scope,” the mayor said in the statement.

“I have consistently said Winnipeggers deserve to know what happened on this project and why things went wrong.”–Mayor Scott Gillingham

Gillingham added that his recent motion to add a chief construction officer is an effort to increase oversight on major projects in the future, pending council approval.

However, one city councillor cast doubt that an inquiry is the best investment for taxpayers at this point, since the city already secured a settlement in the headquarters civil suit.

“We’re waiting for that (settlement) to be paid,” said Coun. Markus Chambers, chair of the Winnipeg Police Board. “The cost of an inquiry, I don’t think would be in the interest of taxpayers at this point.”

Chambers (St. Norbert-Seine River) said the city has already taken many steps to ensure the problems linked to the project aren’t repeated.

“From the city perspective, we’ve done a lot of changes to ensure that practices like this will never happen again,” he said.

‘Long overdue’

By contrast, Coun. Russ Wyatt called the decision to hold an inquiry “good news.”

“It’s long overdue and it’s not too late to have one. Frankly, the cost of a public inquiry versus the cost to the ratepayers of what may have occurred here is not comparable at all, said Wyatt (Transcona).

“The recommendations out of a public inquiry in the future could save the ratepayers millions. I’m hoping there will be strong recommendations coming out of the public inquiry that will reform city hall and put in the checks and balances that we don’t have today.”

Wyatt said he hopes the premier will widen the inquiry’s scope to explore other past City of Winnipeg construction projects.

Kinew did not provide a timeline for striking formal commissions of inquiry on the police HQ and the province’s pandemic response, which the NDP also supported while in opposition.

Manitoba had the second-highest death rate from COVID-19 in Canada, and was the only province that had to send intensive-care unit patients outside its borders for treatment. Critics believe several years of fiscal austerity — which prompted shortages of doctors, nurses and overall capacity — left Manitoba’s health-care system vulnerable to the ravages of the pandemic.

As well, there were numerous concerns the PC government was making decisions on pandemic restrictions for political reasons, against the advice of public health officials.

Kinew first pledged to hold a public inquiry into the pandemic response in 2021, and repeated it during the recent election campaign.

He said he expects it to be a “formal commission of inquiry” that would involve public hearings and — pending legal advice — testimony from key officials in the health-care system.

“We need to get some legal advice… because the other thing is we want people to be able to participate freely without that fear of having blame assigned to them.”–Premier Wab Kinew

“We need to get some legal advice… because the other thing is we want people to be able to participate freely without that fear of having blame assigned to them,” Kinew said.

Although it is not unusual for a new government to order reviews or inquiries into the performance of a former government, Kinew’s decision to pursue dig deeper into the police headquarters and pandemic marks a significant change from the approach used by the Tories after winning the 2016 election.

At the time, former Premier Brian Pallister awarded multiple contracts to outside consultants for “value for money” audits that focused on government expenditures in general, and health-care expenditures, in particular.

Pallister also commissioned a review of the NDP government’s construction management of a new hydroelectric dam and transmission line.

— with files from Joyanne Pursaga

dan.lett@winnipegfreepress.com

Dan Lett
Columnist

Dan Lett is a columnist for the Free Press, providing opinion and commentary on politics in Winnipeg and beyond. Born and raised in Toronto, Dan joined the Free Press in 1986.  Read more about Dan.

Dan’s columns are built on facts and reactions, but offer his personal views through arguments and analysis. The Free Press’ editing team reviews Dan’s columns before they are posted online or published in print — part of the our tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.