Executive director of Main Street Project ousted amid Manitoba auditor general investigation

The executive director of one of Winnipeg’s homeless shelters has been ousted while the entire organization undergoes an audit by the province’s Auditor General — but the organization’s board chair denies the two are related.

Rick Lees, the former executive director of Main Street Project, met with the board of directors on Thursday night, according to a source with knowledge of the shelter’s operations.

The source said Lees’ access card, log-in and computer access were taken away and he was given the choice to resign or be terminated without cause. The source said he has until Saturday to make his decision.

Midday Friday, Main Street Project board chair Vince Warden politely declined an interview, saying “announcements will be made in due course.”

0:47 Main Street Project’s Rick Lees talks about Winnipeg’s homeless camps

However, after this story was published Warden then contacted Global News for further comment, saying the audit is unrelated to Lees stepping down.

“The board and Rick have decided to part ways, we’re going a different direction — but I just want to clarify… that has absolutely nothing to do with any financial irregularities at Main Street Project,” Warden said in an interview on 680 CJOB.

“He’s been in this position for over four years now… it’s a high profile, highly visible position in the community and over time the board has decided they’d like to take this in a slightly different direction.”

“We have no judgment, a very low-barrier facility at Main Street Project, we don’t judge people that come there for shelter or other services that are being offered, very, very proud of the work that’s been done over the last number of years,” Warren said.

“Rick Lees has been on the leading edge of that.”

When contacted by Global News on Friday, Lees said he was on holiday in Ontario and could not comment.

A second source with knowledge of the situation said a staff member from the Main Street Project approached the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority in the spring of 2019 to complain about financial irregularities at the shelter.

The complaint was referred to the Auditor General of Manitoba.

“I can confirm there is an audit in progress of the Main Street Project,” said Frank Landry, the communications manager at the Office of the Auditor General of Manitoba.

Landry would not elaborate on any details surrounding the audit when contacted Friday.

This is not the first time an organization has been linked to an audit while Lees was in a management position.

In 2006, Burntwood Regional Health Authority near Thompson underwent a management audit where it was discovered interest-free loans, travel expenses totalling more than $200,000 over budget and thousands of dollars spent on cigarettes, according to the Thompson Citizen newspaper.

Lees, who was a vice-president at BRHA at the time, was fired along with two others.

Main Street Project was involved earlier this year in the dismantling of a large homeless camp on the grounds of the Manitoba Metis Federation.

In June, the city moved to have the Disraeli camp and a neighbouring camp on Austin Street dismantled following a legal threat from the MMF, although city officials and Main Street Project, which was providing services to the camp, cited fire safety concerns.

“We need more housing, we need more space, but we also don’t want people to die. That’s all this was about,” said Lees at the time, adding that the camp’s residents had encircled tents together and wrapped the tents in other materials.

“From a fire and safety standpoint, if that was ignited, there was no exit, there was no way out, and people were going to die,” Lees said.

A week before, a fire broke out at the camp that was quickly extinguished. No one was hurt, but protesters showed up at the MMF later that day.

The protesters demanded to be let in to the MMF after the doors were locked.

In the above clip, protesters are chanting “no more evictions on stolen land.”

-With files from Erik Pindera