Firms with ties to Brampton councillor, mayor got ‘unfair advantage’ on contracts, docs say

Companies that employed two men with close associations to an incumbent Brampton councillor and its mayor won city contracts after being afforded access not given to other bidders, new documents suggest.

Almost 500 pages of documents — including internal communications, bid details and reports — were obtained by Global News.

They lay out a timeline in which companies with links to Patrick Brown and Coun. Rowena Santos were given an apparent advantage, winning competitive contracts to work on a controversial university scheme in Brampton.

The documents were prepared by auditor Froese Forensic Partners to inform an investigation into the BramptonU project.

An update letter from investigators to Brampton council in August found some advantages may have been afforded to the companies and concluded some work on the contracts had only been completed in part.

A group of six councillors who have opposed Brown voted for the investigation in May, specifically calling for a forensic investigator to probe contracts associated with the university project.

But in June, Coun. Charmaine Williams won a provincial seat and vacated her council seat, reducing Brampton city council to two opposing blocks of five councillors.

The investigation was terminated through a motion moved by Brown and supported by the four councillors loyal to him at the end of August — before a final report could be submitted.

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The contracts related to the city’s BramptonU project, launched in 2019 to develop a local university from scratch.

Both Santos and Brown say the investigation is politically motivated and argue the current term of Brampton council has delivered new post-secondary boons for the city, particularly the promise of a medical school.

In a statement to Global News, Santos said the investigation was “flawed, over-budget, and the report included incorrect and misleading information which was led by a kangaroo court of three … councillors on a self appointed steering committee.”

One of the companies that won a competitive contract, Academy for Sustainable Innovation Canada Inc. (ASI), employed David Wheeler, who had a close connection with Coun. Santos, dating back to his time as her post-secondary instructor.

Wheeler is someone the councillor has described as her “friend and mentor.”

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The other successful company, Stakeholder Research Associates Canada Inc. (SRA), employed Rob Godfrey, a former Patrick Brown ally from his time as leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives.

The update letter issued at the end of August by investigators into the project said “an unfair advantage” was provided to SRA and ASI when they won contracts to complete work on the BramptonU project.

The documents gathered by investigators and seen by Global News show ASI and possibly SRA were involved in a non-competitive contract before winning a tender process, with Santos playing an active role in initiating the involvement of Wheeler.

‘My mentor, David Wheeler’

On Jan. 22, 2019, Coun. Santos sent an email to Brampton’s CAO introducing her “mentor” David Wheeler, who she said had written a blog post discussing the case for a university in Brampton.

“Let me know if you would like to discuss further, have any questions or if you’d like to speak to David Wheeler directly,” the email said.

Two months later, on March 11, Santos told the city’s CAO, her ward partner Coun. Paul Vicente, Brown and his chief of staff that Wheeler would be flying into Brampton from Halifax to have “a further discussion” about the BramptonU project.

That discussion was followed by a request from Brampton to hire Wheeler on a non-competitive contract to start building and writing the case for the creation of BramptonU.

The documents indicate Wheeler and ASI worked with SRA — where Rob Godfrey was employed — to secure and execute the non-competitive contract in the spring of 2019.

In an email on April 8, 2019, Wheeler told SRA president and managing director Katharine Partridge that Brampton was “keen to commission me to do a piece of private research” to inform decision-making around a Brampton university.

“(The CAO) needs to fill out a form for sole-sourcing the research and for that he will need some basic business information from SRA,” Wheeler wrote.

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An unsigned contract between Brampton and SRA dated April 15 and without a price included is part of the collection of documents investigators compiled.

The contract led to a meeting in July 2019, where members of council were to be briefed on the university project.

Until that point, beginning in January, the documents suggest that only some of the elected officials — including Brown, Santos and her ward partner Vicente — were made aware of the contract awarded for BramptonU.

“I believe Dr. David Wheeler spent time speaking with a significant majority of you last week in regards to this item to walk you through the 80-page report,” Brampton’s CAO said in an email to all members of council.

Coun. Jeff Bowman, who has pushed for scrutiny of the BramptonU project, said the meeting was short and that he was not made aware the project was already going ahead.

“It was (a) very cursory meeting with him presenting a handful of slides to us in an effort to get our input,” Bowman told Global News.

“I understood it was a meeting to gather input and thoughts, but it seems the report was final, because when the slides were presented to us, it was just a day or so after our meeting that the report seemed to be finalized (dated in July), so it was obviously a done deal and complete.”

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While the documents show all members of Brampton council were finally informed about the project in July 2019, one email suggests Santos remained more closely involved with her “mentor’s” work than others did.

“I can work on this as well tomorrow or later tonight after the social,” the councillor said in reply to a staff email suggesting Wheeler’s presentation would need to be “cleaner” and “cut … down” to be presented to councillors.

Months later — and after Wheeler won a competitive tender for the project — his billable activities included several 30-minute sessions titled “Briefing for Councillor Santos.”

Attempts to reach Wheeler were not successful in time for publication. Global News emailed the general inbox for his current company, Sustainable Transitions, and Wheeler’s specific email at the company multiple times.

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A response to a local media outlet on Dec. 21, 2021, was included in the documents gathered by investigators. In it, Wheeler denied any conflict of interest.

“All of the contractual work I did on the BramptonU project went through the City’s formal processes, so no conflict of interest ever arose,” he wrote. “Councillor Santos had no role in the specification or award of any contracts; this was all done by officers of the Council acting under instructions (I believe) from the full Council.”

An ‘unfair advantage’

On Aug. 13, 2019, Wheeler emailed Brown’s chief of staff to follow up on a discussion “with Mayor Brown and Councillor Santos yesterday.” He attached a “draft proposal” to develop an academic blueprint for BramptonU.

In an email a few days later, on Aug. 16, this time to a senior Brampton staffer, Wheeler said ASI and SRA were ready to bid on any future BramptonU contracts.

“ASI and/or SRA would be very happy to respond to any RFPs that emerge and indeed we have been standing by for that,” Wheeler wrote.

The proposal to work on the academic side of the BramptonU project — activities such as approaching potential partner universities — were included with specific costs and daily rates.

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After extensions and overruns, the final cost of the BramptonU research and advocacy was more than $600,000, city staff have previously said.

“Dr. Wheeler had knowledge, information and relationships that were not available to other vendors and the time period for submitting proposals, although meeting minimum policy limits, also favoured Dr. Wheeler,” the investigators who collected the documents said in the public letter to council sent at the end of August 2022.

Investigators said that “adjustments to consensus scoring” on one of the bids “resulted in a competing proposal’s scoring being reduced from above the minimum score of 70% to just below the minimum.”

For example, in a series of questions and answers for prospective bidders hoping to work on the BramptonU project, the city declined to share an estimated budget.

“Dr. Wheeler appears to have prior knowledge that Council had approved up to $300,000 for BramptonU from existing budgets, as SRA and ASI combined proposed cost estimates fell within that budget range,” investigators wrote.

A ‘potential conflict of interest’

In their interim update to council in August, investigators concluded Coun. Santos had a “potential conflict of interest … due to her personal friendship and mentorship with Dr. David Wheeler.”

Investigators said the relationship went against Brampton’s employee code of conduct. However, councillors are governed by a separate code of conduct and the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act.

“The clerk has confirmed that any concerns related to a conflict of interest of a Member of Council, are subject to the Council Code of Conduct (not the employee code of conduct) and should be brought to the Integrity Commissioner,” Santos said.

In 2019, the city’s now-former integrity commissioner advised Santos she was not in conflict over her relationship with Wheeler.

“There was no conflict of interest, which I ensured by consulting the Integrity Commissioner in August 2019,” Santos said. “The BramptonU initiative was a Term of Council Priority unanimously supported by all Members of Council at numerous decision points.”

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As well as confirming an introduction to the City of Brampton for Wheeler by Santos, the documents show Rob Godfrey, a long-time associate of Patrick Brown, was directly involved with the project as a consultant for SRA.

Godfrey has previously helped Brown on his leadership campaign, The Hill Times reported in 2018. He also features in the Brampton mayor’s book as a member of his inner circle during the final days of his time leading the Progressive Conservatives.

Brown also denied any conflict.

“Council unanimously supported the tender to SRA and they had discretion to use whatever lobbyists to assist in their project,” Brown’s spokesperson said. “Mayor Brown has no conflict with SRA.”

In the attachment to an email, SRA specifically mentions that Godfrey would be working on the BramptonU file. Under the heading “Who We Are,” a biography of Godfrey is included, along with Jaipaul Massey Singh and Michael Rudderham, two other SRA members.

A list of proposed costs suggests a rate of $400 per hour for two “senior consultants (MR and RG).”

In an October 2020 email, SRA president Katharine Partridge said she was “cc’ing Mike and Rob for information” relating to BramptonU stakeholder engagement.

When both SRA and ASI submitted bids to work on the BramptonU project, the two companies checked a box saying they had “no actual, or perceived conflict of interest.”

Partridge, the managing director of SRA, did not respond to questions sent via the company’s website or directly to her email. A voicemail message was not returned ahead of publication. Godfrey did not respond to a request for comment passed on through his current employer, HEXO Corp.

Work performed ‘in part,’ deliverables ‘received in part’

A key point of contention for critics of Brown on Brampton council — beyond how contracts for BramptonU were awarded — is the question of how much work was completed.

The documents gathered by investigators show meetings did take place between Brampton and provincial officials, with some positive indications passed from Queen’s Park to City Hall.

“I look forward to continuing to work with you and your team on Brampton’s proposal,” said an April 2020 email from David Piccini, then parliamentary assistant to the Minister for Universities and Colleges.

Both Brown and Santos said the city was in a stronger position as a result of the BramptonU project.

Through a spokesperson, Brown said Ontario Premier Doug Ford told him the province responded to Brampton’s push for post-secondary education “with a medical school as that is what the post secondary education system needs at the moment.”

“Mayor Brown believes the City of Brampton is lucky for the determination of Councillor Santos and Councillor Singh who lead the charge on Brampton U as there would be no medical school today without these lobbying efforts.”

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Santos echoed the sentiment.

“The $700k spent by the prior City Council, combined with the $630,000 spent by this Council has ensured that post-secondary education continues to be an important priority for residents,” she said.

However, parts of the BramptonU project failed to significantly advance, investigators said.

For example, investigators said proposals laid out in Wheeler’s initial pitch to draft a raft of agreements with universities to provide programming for BramptonU were not initially completed.

One document, titled “ASI Time Commitment — David Wheeler,” explained that reaching out to partner universities “ended up requiring a good deal more time than originally envisaged, partly because of the reluctance of many Ontario institutions to engage with the City’s process for competitive reasons.”

It also admitted the process was made harder still by the fact “BramptonU does not yet exist” and “the low name recognition for the City of Brampton both within Canada and internationally.”

“Draft non-binding MOUs with potential partners could not be achieved primarily because of the absence of an approved MoU template available for tabling with potential partners,” the document said.

In their assessment, investigators stated the project’s aims were only fulfilled by ASI and SRA in part or were difficult to track.

“There was insufficient information to evaluate the work performed for government relations and property developer/investment community outreach activities for which $100,000 was invoiced to the City,” the report said.

However, in a statement to the Brampton Guardian, ASI’s chief executive officer Tamara Connell disputed the investigation’s conclusion.

“ASI responded to an open RFP process, ASI delivered on the requirements until directed to stop work on certain deliverables. In July 2021 ASI received notice from the City of Brampton that this project was successfully closed with all requirements having been met,” Connell was quoted as saying in the article.

‘Democracy is at a standstill in Brampton’

When Froese Forensic Partners sent its letter to Brampton council, offering an update on the investigation, Brown and several allies on council voted to scrap the unfinished work.

The decision prompted Coun. Bowman, who has not registered to run again in October’s municipal election and has repeatedly voted against Brown, to say the mayor was the “poster child” of a leader who should not receive additional strong mayor powers from the province.

At a press conference at Queen’s Park, Bowman said the premier should “carve out” an exemption and specifically block the Brampton mayor from being given the proposed new powers, which include a veto over council decisions.

“Democracy is at a standstill in Brampton,” Bowman said. “It is time that Brampton asks for assistance from the provincial government: for the Premier to block Mr. Brown from abusing his powers in an expanded way, and for the Ombudsman to complete the RFP investigations.”

Brown dismissed the claim through a spokesperson.

“Mayor Brown believes Councillor Bowman should pay back the money that was wasted in the numerous investigations he has supported,” Gary Collins, Brown’s director of communications, said. “This was a witch hunt on Councillor Santos.”

“Councillor Santos deserves our thanks for her efforts,” Collins said. “We have a medical school coming to Brampton today because of these efforts.”

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