Former Winnipeg mayor says he told people to keep project cost under control

Former Winnipeg mayor Sam Katz has told a public inquiry he instructed others at city hall to control the rising cost of the city’s new police headquarters.

The inquiry is examining the city’s development of a headquarters for the Winnipeg Police Service, which ran more than $70 million over budget by the time it was completed in 2016.

Katz was asked by the inquiry’s lawyer about the summer of 2011, when the project was already running tens of millions of dollars over budget.

Get breaking National news

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.

Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up

By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Katz says he called a meeting with the police chief and others on the steering committee overseeing in the project, and told them the project was not to rise any further beyond a maximum guaranteed price that had been agreed upon.

He says he told the steering committee to find a solution to rising costs, but they never found a solution and costs rose again.

In civil court, the city’s former chief administrative officer, Phil Sheegl, was found to have accepted a $327,000 bribe from the contractor that did the majority of the work on the project.

Sheegl had said the money was for an unrelated real estate transaction in Arizona, in which the contractor bought equity and the proceeds were split with Katz, who was a co-investor in the property.

Sheegl appealed the civil court ruling and lost.

The Manitoba Court of Appeal said Sheegl’s actions amounted to “disgraceful, unethical behaviour by a public servant.”

Sheegl is scheduled to appear at the inquiry next week.