Michael Lewis
Toronto city council has asked the city’s chief procurement officer to advise Gardiner Expressway project consultants WSP Canada Inc. of the basis for a possible suspension from bidding on city contracts and to report back on whether a suspension should be imposed.
Council voted last week to direct the procurement officer to provide WSP with 30 days to respond to the notice and to report to the General Government Committee on whether the Montreal-based multinational should be deemed ineligible for any future work, and for how long.
WSP has 88 active contracts with Toronto totalling almost $175 million to provide engineering, design and administration services in areas including road rehabilitation and basement flood protection.
The consideration of a possible suspension from bidding comes in the wake of the city’s lawsuit claiming WSP design errors caused an eight-month delay in Gardiner rehabilitation work.
The city in February filed a statement of claim in Ontario Superior Court alleging that WSP, which was contracted to provide preliminary design for rehabilitation of section 1 from Jarvis Street to Cherry Street, committed design errors that led to “numerous change orders and directives to the construction contractor.”
The claim says the errors were addressed during construction but added costs to rectify and to accelerate the section work, which was completed “more than eight months late” in June 2021.
The city’s lawsuit claims at least $36 million to recover costs it alleges were incurred due to the design errors. It says the city spent $33.2 million in increased payments to the contractor due to design issues including about $20 million to accelerate the project and about $10 million in seasonal expenses brought on by winter work.
The city also estimates that it lost $3 million in extra costs so city staff could oversee the work and in payments to external consultants and lawyers, as well as the general loss to the city of having the downtown expressway partially closed longer than expected. “Despite requests, WSP has failed to or refused to compensate the city,” says the city’s claim.
The lawsuit has not been tested in court and a spokesperson for the firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment, although notice to defend the suit has been filed on the company’s behalf by a Toronto-based construction lawyer.
Chief procurement officer Genevieve Sharkey and construction services executive director Jennifer Graham Harkness in a report to council advised that city staff believe a suspension “was not warranted,” suggesting that WSP continues to meet overall expectations.
WSP executive vice-president Amir Abd El Halim in a deposition to the city said the firm has a track record of completing projects on time and on budget and said city rules say suspensions are justified only when the municipality’s business interests are at risk, which he argued is not the case in this instance.
