Confusion over multimillion-dollar invoices continues at police HQ inquiry

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This article was published 18/03/2026 (191 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg Police Service headquarters subcontractor says his company submitted invoices for $2.7 million of work it did not perform, and was not ultimately paid for, beginning with claims meant to cover future costs.

During a public inquiry into the project Wednesday, Strada Construction owner John Garcea said his company sought the contract to support a WPS shooting range but was not awarded the work.

That project to complete a road, berm and landscaping at Wyper Road was included in the headquarters construction.

However, Garcea said he did submit some invoices in 2011 to prepare for the project, which he had hoped his company could start building that October.

“It’s called progress payments … We requested to get prepaid … before we started to put money into supplies and materials that we needed,” he said.

On Wednesday, multiple emails and cheques were displayed at the inquiry, which lawyers say reference payments between Strada and key HQ contractor Caspian Projects, noting the $2.7-million contract price.

Last week, a forensic accountant told the inquiry the city was billed for that contract but Caspian did not appear to have paid it to the subcontractor. Expert witness Victor Neufeld also said berm and road work was completed by other companies.

Overall, Neufeld told the inquiry he estimates $45 million to $50 million of excess claims were filed for the HQ project.

On Wednesday, Heather Leonoff, the legal counsel for the provincial inquiry, raised a series of emails and cheques from August 2012. She said these show Caspian paid Strada $1.2 million, after which Strada paid a Caspian company the same amount five days later.

“Is this anything you’d seen before?” Leonoff asked Garcea.

“No … it’s not normal,” he answered.

Neufeld’s report noted multiple examples of “flow-through” payments, which he said involved Caspian and a subcontractor paying each other the same amount of money.

Garcea said Strada had no employees at the time the first invoice for shooting range work was submitted.

Michael Finlayson, a lawyer representing the City of Winnipeg, showed another email exchange dated July 2012. Finlayson said the documents show Caspian asked for a $931,000 invoice from Strada toward the gun range project, which was later sent.

“There’s no work been done, there’s no employees. And, in fact, the job in question has already been done by a different party. Can you explain to me how that (invoice) happened?” asked Finlayson.

Garcea said he didn’t recall.

Earlier Wednesday, an electrical subcontractor for the HQ project testified he was not aware of Neufeld’s finding that the city was charged nearly $14 million for electrical change orders (reflecting changes in the project’s scope).

John Schubert, who worked on the project with McCaine Electric, said his company did not receive that increase and believed their contract had a “fixed price.”

“If there was $14 (million more), I would be aware of it,” said Schubert.

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Problems with the headquarters project at 245 Smith St. have plagued the city for years. An external audit found it had been severely mismanaged. Initially expected to cost $135 million, its price soared to $214 million, when flood damage and some late security upgrades are included.

It also triggered multiple legal battles.

In March 2023, the City of Winnipeg approved a settlement of fraud and construction-deficiency lawsuits it raised over the project. The city expects to receive up to $28 million through that settlement, depending when payment is completed.

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.