Committee refuses cash for police HQ

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This article was published 23/11/2013 (4364 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

City hall inched its way closer to calling an audit into Winnipeg’s police headquarters when a frustrated trio of councillors refused to accept a request to spend more money on the downtown megaproject, now saddled with a $209.8-million pricetag.

On Friday afternoon, council’s downtown committee took the rare step of declining to decide what to do with a finance-department request for $17.2 million in additional spending on a project whose cost has ballooned from $135 million in 2009.

Finance officials want the city to borrow $15.2 million and redirect $2 million worth of other funds in order to cover the cost of design and scope changes that were not covered by a “guaranteed maximum price” agreement that was subject to a series of caveats and conditions.

For the first time since these additional costs were disclosed in October, councillors had a chance to grill city officials in public about the problems plaguing the police-headquarters renovation, which began as a traditional construction project but was amended to a model where the general contractor was supposed to work with designers as the project proceeded.

For 21/2 hours, Couns. Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan), Jenny Gerbasi (Fort Rouge) and Mike Pagtakhan (Point Douglas) grilled Winnipeg chief financial officer Mike Ruta, contracted project manager Ossama AbouZeid, police-service liaison Randy Benoit and contracted designers from Ottawa about real-estate fees associated with the purchase of the former Canada Post building, the failure of city staff to inform council about the financial risks associated with the construction and a curious decision not to account for furniture and equipment in the initial cost projection.

In the end, all three were unsatisfied. Browaty said he expected more accountability.

“Whether it’s one of the contractors, whether it’s an engineer, whether it an architect, whether it’s our public service, we need full disclosure here and we need answers,” said the two-term councillor.

The chief irritant to many councillors is the city’s failure to inform council in 2011 a “guaranteed maximum price agreement” they believed would limit the project cost to $194 million was actually based on a design that was only 30 per cent complete.

But other questions remain regarding the way the construction contract was awarded (initially to two firms, but eventually to one), changes to the construction model (“everything just kind of fell apart,” said one designer) to fluctuating cost projections. Today, the project stands at $209.8 million, or down $1 million from last week due to lower expected interest on borrowing to finance the construction.

Couns. Paula Havixbeck (Charleswood-Tuxedo) and John Orlikow (River Heights-Fort Garry), who appeared before the committee, claimed they had hundreds of questions about the latest report to council, which Mayor Sam Katz had held up as the definitive history of the troubled construction project on Wednesday.

“There’s definitely an incredible number of red flags council should have been aware of,” Orlikow said.

AbouZeid expressed surprise council was not made aware of key aspects of the project, while Ruta conceded responsibility belonged to the city’s chief administrative officer at the time.

On Wednesday, council voted 9-7 against auditing the police headquarters project. Gerbasi said she would like council to revisit the issue in December, although a two-thirds majority of council would have to agree to debate the same issue again so soon.

Browaty and Pagtakhan, who were among those who voted against the audit, said they are more open to the idea now. Browaty, however, said he would still prefer city staff to provide answers to his questions.

The committee decision not to recommend any action — a compromise agreement — means the questions of whether to spend more money will be left to executive policy committee, potentially as soon as next week.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca