City of Winnipeg wants RCMP to hand over documents in police HQ investigation

The City of Winnipeg wants a judgeto compel the RCMP to produce copies of all documents, notes and records seized from Caspian Projects during the course of acriminal investigation into the construction of the Winnipeg police headquarters building.

The documents are important to the city's case ina lawsuit filed against it by Caspian in June, City of Winnipegchief corporate services officer Michael Jack says.

"Seized documents are essential for the plaintiff to properly assess the merits of, and respond to, the amended statement of defence, counterclaim andcrossclaim," Jack said ina Sept. 18 affidavit.

Caspian wasthe main contractor involved in theconversion ofthe former Canada Post building on Graham Avenue into the Winnipeg Police Service's new HQ, which has gone more than $75 million over budget.

In May, the city sued Caspianand engineering firm AdjeleianAllenRubeliLimitedto recover costs for what it calleda number of alleged defects and deficiencies in the $214-million construction project. The city said fixing those problems will cost taxpayers "north of $10 million."

In June, Caspian responded to the city's civil suit with astatement of defence and in turn filed a $7.9-million counterclaim against the city for damages and money it said is owed in the construction project.

"Design and construction of the[Winnipeg Police Service]headquarters was delayed by the fault or negligence of the City, its employees or agents," Caspian said in the June court document.

"It would be unfair to require the plaintiff to proceed to trial without having production of the aforementioned documents," the city said in the Sept. 18 notice of motionapplication.

No charges in RCMPinvestigation

The RCMP investigation into the construction of the police HQ is now in its fourth year and so far no charges have beenlaid.

InDecember 2014,the Mounties raided Caspian's offices and are still in possession ofdocuments seized in that raid. In 2015, they also seized documents from an office inside the new police HQ that had been occupied by AAR.

The RCMP is also investigating fraud allegations in the construction of the Canada Post mail processing plant near the James Richardson International Airport. That plantwas also built by Caspian.

• 'Criminal charges will be sought' in Winnipeg police HQ, Canada Post mail plant probe, say RCMP

The city said it can't properly respond to Caspian's allegations without the RCMP documents.

"I do verily believe that the production of the seized documents currently in the possession of theRCMPwould cause little inconvenience or expense to any other party, that no one other than theRCMPcan produce the seized documents in question,"Jack said in the affadavit.

Last December, Canada Post filed a similar court application toforceRCMPto hand over the seized documents.

• Judge dismisses Canada Post motion for RCMP documents seized in Caspian fraud investigation

AManitoba Court of Queen's Bench judgedismissed that request.