City auditor reviewing Winnipeg's zoning bylaw contract

A $1.6 million contract. Mayoral candidate Kevin Klein brought it up at CBC's debate on Wednesday. Did the employee declare that? And why did the money, $1.6 million, go to an American firm in Miami, Florida? And he's raised it at news conferences throughout his campaign. Why wasn't that disclosed? Online records show a $1.6 million contract to rewrite Winnipeg zoning bylaw went to architecture and planning company DPZ CoDesign in December it's based in Miami, Florida Klein alleges there is a conflict of interest in the case he claims the city's planning director Hazel Boris hired in 2023 used to do business with the company through her former consulting firm PlaceMakers CBC has asked DPZ CoDesign and PlaceMakers for comment Boris could not be reached for comment but in an email the city says she was not part of the decision to award the contract to DPZ CoDesign at one point Klein suggested it was a single source contract the city says it was not a spokesperson says trade laws dictated that all interested bidders not just local ones could submit proposals for the contract because the cost exceeded a million dollars. So that contract was awarded through our RFP process. Suggesting that something was improper about that is not the case. But incumbent mayoral candidate Scott Gillingham says the case was flagged to him before the debate and he had it sent to the independent city auditor for review. Information came to me. It was appropriate to send it to the auditor to have a look at. That's the appropriate process and so that's what I did several weeks ago. I think it's actually really irresponsible though for mayoral candidates to be naming individuals and speculating on whether there's something that was inappropriate or not. Klein says given the findings in the Winnipeg Police Headquarters inquiry released earlier this week which found former Mayor Sam Katz violated public trust, Winnipeggers have every right to question the incumbent. Rosanna Hempel, CBC News, Winnipeg.