Today marks the final deadline for a $23 million settlement payment to the City of Winnipeg related to the Winnipeg Police Service headquarters project.
Under a Council-approved tiered settlement, the Caspian defendants have until the close of business today to make the payment. If the deadline passes without payment, the City is prepared to immediately seek a court judgment for the full $28 million and take all reasonable steps to enforce its security.
“Winnipeggers have waited a long time for this, and our focus has been simple: recover as much money as possible for taxpayers,” said Mayor Scott Gillingham. “What we’ve recovered so far, and what we expect to recover, shows that taking legal action was the right call.”
This deadline follows the successful recovery of $1.15 million in January 2026 from former CAO Phil Sheegl. To date, the City’s legal actions have already recovered over $1.6 million from various defendants.
While the City continues to cooperate with the ongoing provincial inquiry into the headquarters project, Gillingham emphasized that significant changes have already been made to how major projects are managed. Since the headquarters project concluded, the City has:
- Completed external audits of the building purchase and project costing.
- Satisfied all 19 recommendations from a forensic audit of the construction project.
- Hired Canada’s first Chief Construction Officer, fulfilling one of Gillingham’s campaign promises to provide independent, expert oversight directly to Council on major builds.
- Adopted a new "Mega Project" governance model to ensure transparency and prevent the systemic failures of the past.
“We’re cleaning up a mess that started more than 15 years ago,” added Gillingham. “We’re fixing broken processes, bringing in the right expertise, and building stronger oversight so this doesn’t happen again.”