City committee forges ahead with design contract for sewage upgrades

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This article was published 18/07/2024 (419 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A city council committee has approved the next contract for Winnipeg’s largest-ever infrastructure project, despite complaints the process was flawed and poised to deliver a poor return for the local economy.

On Thursday, council’s water and waste committee voted three-to-one to award a $95-million design contract for the $1.035-billion biosolids facilities phase of the north end sewage treatment plant upgrade. The committee had delayed its vote on Tuesday to seek more information on the matter.

After at least three confidential discussions with water and waste officials, Coun. Cindy Gilroy raised a motion Thursday to award the “development phase agreement” contract to Red River Biosolids Partners, a joint venture of Aecon Water Infrastructure Inc., Oscar Renda Contracting of Canada Inc. and MWH Constructors Canada Ltd.

“We’ve had a few meetings now. We have been able to go in-camera and get a really in-depth review,” said Gilroy (Daniel McIntyre).

Couns. Shawn Dobson (St. James) and Vivian Santos (Point Douglas) joined Gilroy to support that motion, while Coun. Brian Mayes (St. Vital) opposed it.

Mayes, who is the committee’s chairman, said he’d prefer to refer the matter to the city’s future chief construction officer, a position the city is now searching for candidates to fill.

“(This project is) a billion dollars, potentially. If delay costs us a bit, I’m OK with that because I would sleep better at night if the chief construction officer said… this is completely fine, this is completely OK,” he said during the meeting.

During the debate, critics stressed the company that designs the work would have a major competitive advantage in securing the broader $1-billion project and urged the committee to order a third-party review of its process to assess bids.

The head of two construction associations said the process to award the contract has been flawed.

“It’s the largest capital project that the city has ever undertaken… the recommendations that the administration were providing were just not adequate for this type of investment on behalf of taxpayers,” said Ramona Coey, executive director of both the Mechanical Contractors Association of Manitoba and the Electrical Constructors Association of Manitoba.

Coey questioned the brevity of a 10-page city staff report on the topic and that report’s estimate the $95-million design contract would produce just $200,000 of gross domestic product benefits and two person years of employment for Manitoba.

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City officials argue the biosolids project is expected to create a much greater benefit for the local economy once construction begins.

The staff report says the city received just two bids for the contract, the second from a joint venture of Graham Infrastructure LP and PCL Constructors Canada Inc.

The biosolids facilities project is the second phase of the sewage plant upgrade. The broader, three-phase project is expected to cost at least $2.38 billion, which one recent, unofficial estimate suggested could surge up to around $3 billion.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter

Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne.

Every piece of reporting Joyanne produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.