Law firm city selected for procurement of Stage 2 LRT has relationship with SNC-Lavalin
Posted Aug 8, 2019 07:45:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The City of Ottawa is dismissing any suggestion of conflict of interest connected to the selection of a law firm to advise it on Stage 2 LRT procurement, even though that firm has a relationship with SNC-Lavalin, who ultimately won the bid.
Norton Rose Fulbright has been advising the Montreal-based company on a number of projects dating back to 2014.
The law firm was selected by the city back in early 2016, after it held a procurement process to find legal advisors for the Stage 2 project.
A statement sent to 1310 NEWS by the City of Ottawa said Norton Rose Fulbright was “required to disclose any actual or potential conflicts of interest,” which would be reviewed by the Independent Fairness Commissioner.
The statement went on to say, “The city was fully aware that Norton Rose Fulbright had advised a number of other private parties, including SNC-Lavalin, on other unrelated matters and/or projects. This did not create a conflict of interest in connection with the 2017 MOU negotiations, nor the Stage 2 project procurement, and is common industry practice.”
During the procurement process for bidders on the Trillium Line expansion, the law firm would not have had access to the names attached to the bidders' technical scores.
“They were reviewing applications in absences of the identity of the applicants,” said Riley Brockington, Councillor for River Ward. “It's not like you had before you an entire package and it said, 'This is SNC or this is company B or C.'”
SNC-Lavalin scored 67.27 per cent on its bid, failing to meet the minimum score threshold of 70 per cent.
According to the CBC, there were two rounds of technical scoring and SNC-Lavalin received a failing grade both times. Their report also said the city received legal opinion from Norton Rose Fulbright, advising that if it didn't allow SNC-Lavalin to continue in the procurment process, after failing the required technical score, the company could seek legal action.
SNC-Lavalin ended up winning the bid for the Trillium Line, even though other bidders ranked higher in technical scoring.
1310 NEWS has reached out to Mayor Jim Watson and Norton Rose Fulbright, but has not received a comment back.
