Tartan Towing files new lawsuit against city

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This article was published 11/02/2025 (219 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tartan Towing is taking another legal swipe at the City of Winnipeg.

The company’s lawyers filed a new lawsuit against city hall and Janice Lukes, the Waverley West councillor, last month, in which they are accused of breach of contract.

The suit relates to the city’s announcement in November that city officials would not exercise their option to renew a contract between Tartan and the Winnipeg Police Service in 2025.

The Winnipeg Police Service said in November it had launched an internal review of its towing contracts, while a city spokesperson had said the contract would be re-tendered in 2025.

Tartan is seeking damages from the city for the alleged breach of contract, and from Lukes for allegedly inducing a breach of contract, as well as costs, interest and special damages. No trial date has been set.

Tartan Towing successfully bid on the contract in August after the city issued a tender in June to hire a company to tow and store vehicles that are ticketed by police.

The city has an active lawsuit, filed in 2023, against Tartan over alleged excessive billing totalling $1.1 million, leading to controversy in the media when the contract was granted. Tartan has launched a countersuit.

Tartan claims the police contract wasn’t renewed due to public comments by Lukes in which she raised concern about how the city had granted the towing contract.

Tartan called her actions wrongful interference.

“Historically, Tartan has provided towing services under previous, similar contracts and … those contracts were consistently renewed for the full five-year period,” the January statement of claim reads.

“Relying on standard practice within the industry, historical conduct and express and implied representations from the city, Tartan invested capital to meet the requirements at its own cost.”

Tartan alleges the contract was not eligible to be re-tendered. The company claims the city breached its duties to Tartan by refusing to provide or negotiate an extension, “effectively terminating a five-year contract within the first four months.”

Tartan argues the city breached its duties by planning to re-tender the contract “in response” to Lukes’s statements without giving the company a chance to respond.

Lukes and the director of another towing company, Bison Towing, discussed their concerns about the contract to the media. Tartan responded by launching two lawsuits, both of which remain before the courts.

Tartan alleges the statements she made were meant to induce the city to breach the contract.

The company called some of Lukes’s statements to the media defamatory in the two separate lawsuits filed against her, Bison Towing, and Bison director Zakria Shoaib in November.

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Tartan accused Lukes of implying Tartan bribed the city to obtain the contract, among other allegations.

In court filings last month, Lukes defended her statements as fair comment and denied allegations of wrongdoing. She argues the quotes cited by Tartan in its lawsuits did not fully capture the essence of her statements.

She would not comment Monday on the new lawsuit and echoed her previous statements about her concerns being broader than the contract in question.

“To be clear, I am not concerned about any one towing company,” she said in a text message. “It is my job and my role as councillor to ensure taxpayers are receiving value for their tax dollars.”

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Erik Pindera
Reporter

Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020.  Read more about Erik.

Every piece of reporting Erik 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.