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Winnipeg police HQ inquiry hearings planned for winter, spring 2026
The public inquiry hearings into the construction of Winnipeg's police headquarters are being planned for winter and spring 2026, the inquiry said in a news release Monday.
The police headquarters project, which saw the city purchase a former Canada Post office and warehouse complex and convert it into the new home of the Winnipeg Police Service, was completed in 2016 for $214 million, $79 million over the council-approved budget in 2011.
The project was also the subject of two external audits, a five-year RCMP investigation that concluded in 2019 without any charges, and civil litigation by the city against former chief administrative officer Phil Sheegl, primary contractor Caspian Construction and other contractors.
The inquiry will examine "the circumstances surrounding the redevelopment of the Winnipeg Police Service headquarters and determine what measures are necessary to restore public confidence in the City of Winnipeg's ability to build large, publicly funded construction projects," the news release said.
The province announced in February it had selected labour lawyer Garth Smorang to serve as the commissioner for an inquiry to review the procurement and construction of a police headquarters in Manitoba's capital. The inquiry was initially requested by a Winnipeg city council led by then-mayor Brian Bowman in 2017.
Before the inquiry starts, Smorang will decide who can participate in the process, the release said.
Anyone who wants to participate must be granted standing. Individuals or groups can apply, and applications must be received by Smorang by 4 p.m. on Aug. 8.
More information about that process is available on the inquiry's website.
A procedural hearing is also scheduled for Sept. 10 at 9 a.m. at the Public Utilities Board offices at 400-330 Portage Ave. in Winnipeg to determine standing, along with other motions and applications, the release said.
The litigation against Sheegl concluded in 2022 with a court ruling that the former CAO had accepted a $327,200 bribe from Caspian principal Armik Babakhanians and must pay the city $1.1 million.
Sheegl lost an appeal of that decision in 2023, when the appeal court determined Sheegl engaged in 14 breaches of duty between 2010 and 2012 — and that former Winnipeg mayor Sam Katz can be considered a material witness, even though he was not a party to the lawsuit and is not accused of any wrongdoing.
The city's lawsuit against Caspian and other contractors was settled in 2023, when Babakhanians and the other defendants agreed to pay the city no less than $21.5 million.
The police HQ inquiry will be far narrower in scope than the inquiry city council formally requested from the provincial government eight years ago.
In 2017, when Brian Pallister was Manitoba's premier and Brian Bowman served as Winnipeg's mayor, city council voted to ask the province to launch a public inquiry into "any and all matters" related to the construction of Winnipeg's police headquarters and a series of municipal real estate transactions that were examined in a 2014 external review.
Those transactions included the Parker land swap, the purchase of the Canada Post complex that became the police headquarters, the aborted sale of vacant land near the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and the sales of the Winnipeg Square parkade and the former Canad Inns Stadium site.
A broader inquiry on this scale likely would have cost the province more than $2 million. The Charbonneau commission, Quebec's public inquiry into construction-industry corruption, cost $35 million by the time it was completed in 2015.
In Manitoba, the inquiry into the death of Phoenix Sinclair cost $14 million by the time its final report was presented in 2014.
The proposed cost of the police-headquarters inquiry is closer to two Manitoba inquiries conducted nearly two decades ago: the $3-million inquiry into the wrongful conviction of James Driskell, which wrapped up in 2007, and the $2.6-million, 2008 inquiry into police conduct following the death of Crystal Taman.
Smorang has been provided with a limited time frame to conduct his work on the police headquarters inquiry. He must submit a completed report by Jan. 1, 2027.
