A newly released timeline of events shows the city lawyer fired over the botched water treatment plant lawsuit is to blame.
The City of Winnipeg was suing several contractors over alleged construction issues with the Deacon Reservoir Water Treatment Plant. An internal review says the lawyer believed the city had until December 2015 to file the lawsuit. The deadline was actually earlier and the city missed the cutoff. The suit had to be abandoned last year. The review concludes the lawyer never actually researched the limitation period in the first place.
City Chief Corporate Services Officer Michael Jack authored the review.
"The date that lawyer two was operating with was not the correct date to be paying attention to in terms of the filing deadline,” said Jack.
The lawyer was fired as a result but is suing the city for wrongful dismissal. As CTV News first reported last month, in a statement of claim, Denise Pambrun denies she made an error and accuses the city of damaging her reputation. Those allegations have not been tested in court.
An audit released the same day as the internal review shows the city’s legal department may be understaffed and struggles with workloads and tight deadlines, and that could lead to errors.
And city councillor Janice Lukes says the review shows other lawyers and city officials were involved with the file.
"I really have to wonder how one person can be the only responsible one," said Lukes.
But Michael Jack says there is evidence to back up the conclusions in the review.
"That was all substantiated by court filings or email correspondence or what have you," said Jack.
Finance chair Scott Gillingham called for the review and takes no issue with the findings.
"I believe it's accurate and correct," said Gillingham.
Besides the timeline of what happened, Gillingham was also hoping the internal review would offer another solution, beyond the lawsuit, on how to recoup money for repairs at the plant. It appears there is no other option.
"We will not be able to recover money on the Deacon water plant regarding deficiencies, for the citizens of Winnipeg and that’s a disappointing result," said Gillingham.
The city says changes are being made to make sure this type of mistake does not happen again. Litigation lawyers will be placed on all cases whether they’re expected to end up in court or not, and title pages with deadline dates will be placed on all files.
CTV News reached out to Pambrun’s lawyer for comment but was unable to reach him.
