Communication key to future city projects, says chief construction officer

Winnipeg’s first chief construction officer called for more communication between government and industry, discussed the public inquiry into the Winnipeg Police Service headquarters project and reflected on his first year in the new role during an event with local business leaders on Wednesday.

During a presentation held by the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, Tom Sparrow said his role — the first of its kind in the city and Canada — had begun in a “period of increasing infrastructure complexity and capital demand” in the Manitoba capital.

“The numbers are staggering. I would say even (with) today’s numbers, we’re looking at anywhere from $10- to $15-billion worth of work that we need to do over the next eight to 10 years,” he said.

“Which is obviously quite significant, and we’ll be relying a lot on industry to assist us in that area.”

Sparrow, who began his position in April 2025, provides monthly reports on all major projects to city council and its executive policy committee. He said there could be improvements made in the communication between industry and municipal government and called co-ordination between parties in infrastructure projects “one of the most common breakdown areas.”

“I think industry expects things to move a lot quicker than, unfortunately, how government is able to do it,” he said.

“I think there needs to be a better alignment of understanding of what we can do and what we cannot do … I think it comes down to communication.”

Taking a question about the WPS headquarters inquiry, which is exploring the severe mismanagement of the 245 Smith St. construction project, Sparrow said the situation would have raised red flags “very early on in the process” if a position similar to his had existed at the time (2009-16).

“I’ll be honest, I’ve never seen a project like this in my entire life, anywhere in the world, that has been in the situation that this has been in,” he said.

Chamber president and CEO Loren Remillard said Wednesday’s event was the “start of an ongoing dialogue” by the organization to bring government and business together.

“We know that there’s been challenges historically with construction projects of a certain magnitude in our community,” he said.

“What we got today was a progress report and a real good idea of not just the work that’s being done, but the work to be done.”

Going into the second year of the chief construction officer era, Manitoba Heavy Construction Association president and CEO Chris Lorenc said he’d like to see Sparrow and the city tackle interdepartment delays at the government level.

Lorenc said “a history of silo evolution” has inevitably created slowdowns that result in significant costs.

“I think one of the questions that council could and should be asking Tom Sparrow is: if he were to reorganize the governance of investment strategies and programs, what structure would he recommend for council to consider?”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca