Councillor wants answers about roles of law firm

Somerset Coun. Catherine McKenney said Monday she will press for answers about whether a law firm that has worked for both the city and embattled engineering giant SNC-Lavalin was in a conflict of interest.

McKenney raised the question at a March 6 council meeting, then again last week after councillors received a memo on Aug. 2 saying SNC-Lavalin failed to reach the minimum 70 per cent technical score in bidding for the $1.6-billion Trillium Line light rail extension contract. Two other shortlisted firms scored better, but SNC’s bid price was better and the company received the top ranking when its financial score was factored in.

Norton Rose Fulbright, a law firm with offices around the world, won a city contract to provide legal services for Stage 2. Geoffrey Gilbert, a procurement and commercial law expert, was the firm’s lead lawyer advising the City of Ottawa during the Stage 2 procurement.

The fact that Norton Rose Fulbright had also represented SNC came up at a March 6 council meeting. Gilbert declined to disclose details about the bid scoring to council, citing confidentiality provisions in the Stage 2 procurement process.

McKenney said she learned that the firm listed SNC as a client or a previous client when she was Googling for information. At the March 6 council meeting, McKenney asked if the law firm had declared a conflict of interest.

“I was ruled out of order,” said McKenney. “I thought it was pertinent. I never got a public answer.”

Norton Rose Fulbright has not responded to a request for comment. However, O-Train construction director Michael Morgan said Norton Rose Fulbright won the Stage 2 legal contract after a competitive process in 2016. The law firm had to disclose actual or potential conflicts of interest and they were cleared by the independent fairness commissioner, Morgan told this newspaper last week.

The city was “fully aware” Norton Rose Fulbright had advised other private organizations, including SNC, on unrelated matters. It didn’t create a conflict of interest in the Stage 2 procurement, he said.

McKenney said she believes that a law firm the size of Norton Rose Fulbright would be quite careful about conflict of interest. But there is still a lot that is unclear. She has no timeline for when the law firm worked for SNC and when it worked for the city, for example.

“Now that we have been informed that SNC did not meet the technical requirements, it would seem that the question is pertinent again,” she said. “It’s important that all of these decisions are made in a public and transparent way.”

In an emailed statement late Monday, Morgan said: “Releasing additional information related to specific evaluations during the active procurement phase would have been outside the process contemplated in the RFP and the March 2017 delegation of authority by Council to City Staff. Taking steps outside of the defined RFP process would in turn jeopardize the integrity of the process and potentially open the City of Ottawa to legal claims and litigation.”

McKenney said she could ask her questions again at city council’s next meeting on Sept 11, but will only be able to do that if it is relevant to the discussion. She can also ask at the finance and economic development committee meeting on Sept. 10. She also has the option of requesting a formal inquiry, which would require a response from senior staff.

“I just believe the public has the right to a response,” she said.