‘Never seen it before’: City’s purchasing manager testifies on day one of police HQ inquiry

A long-awaited inquiry into the purchase and constriction of the Winnipeg Police Headquarters is now underway. Jeff Keele breaks it down.

The first witness to testify in the downtown Winnipeg police headquarters inquiry was questioned about a notable amendment made to the scandal-ridden project’s construction bid.

The city’s longtime purchasing manager Barb D’Avignon was asked Tuesday about contract changes prior to construction.

Specifically, D’Avignon was asked about an amendment in early 2011 that reduced a performance bond from $40 million to $25 million for the $80 million construction bid.

D’Avignon was asked if she’d ever seen that low of a bond for that size of project.

“Never seen it before and I’ve never seen it again,” she said.

The bonds are required by the city to ensure a project is completed. If not, they can cash it in.

Prior to the change, D’Avignon wrote a risk assessment, stating $25 million was considered too low to cover in case of serious default in the work.

The $135 million project to buy and renovate the former Canada Post building ended up costing $214 million.

In court documents, RCMP alleged the city was the victim of a multimillion-dollar fraud.

A civil court judge concluded former city chief executive officer Phil Sheegl accepted a $327,000 bribe from Caspian Construction, the project’s general contractor.

Caspian’s lawyer, George Orle, also questioned D’Avignon. He pointed to a document where D’Avignon told RCMP Sheegl’s intent was to lower the bond to get smaller companies into the bid process.

“It wasn’t lowered specifically for Caspian, that was part of the proposal. Anyone who wanted to take advantage of that lower amount could do that?” asked Orle.

“Correct,” said D’Avignon.

Former Winnipeg mayor Sam Katz is also expected to testify this week along with city project manager Jason Ruby, PCL Construction’s Sean Barnes, ICI Properties president John Pearson and lawyer Eleanor Andres, who is listed as an expert witness.

Sheegl is expected to testify next week.

The inquiry is scheduled for 48 days with 33 witnesses.

- With files from The Canadian Press