Manitoba watching Winnipeg city hall controversies closely
The Manitoba government is not planning a deeper look into financial controversies that rocked Winnipeg city hall this week — at least, not at this time.
A scathing audit of the fire hall land swap and news of cost overruns related to construction of a new police headquarters have some councillors, as well as the city's police union, demanding for the province or the RCMP to get involved.
- Winnipeg police union wants RCMP probe into fire hall deal
- City council votes for legal review of fire hall audit
- Councillors call for Winnipeg mayor to resign
For now, the province is monitoring the situation closely, says Kevin Chief, the recently appointed minister responsible for relations with the City of Winnipeg.
"We are actually seeing, through people like the Winnipeg Police Association and members of council … ideas and we're seeing motions, we're seeing action taken on how that this could become more accountable and transparent," he said Friday.
Mayor Sam Katz and Premier Greg Selinger are set to discuss what the province could do to help, such as helping council establish an ethics commissioner.
The land swap audit report, released Monday, showed that a massive real estate deal involving fire halls was severely mismanaged.
Much of the blame was laid at the feet of former city chief administrative officer Phil Sheegl, who resigned last week.
Sources told CBC News that rising cost overruns for the construction of the new police headquarters was the final straw that led to the end of Sheegl's tenure at city hall.