Statement from the Office of the CAO re: Urbacon Settlement

Press release.

Last night City Council received a staff report regarding settlement of the City’s litigation with Urbacon and it directed staff to make public the details of the settlement. Read the
City Council resolution regarding the settlement with Urbacon
.

The City and Urbacon have settled the litigation out of court for $6.635 million
.

I’m pleased that both parties were able to come together and reach settlement. Doing so has saved the City of Guelph further legal costs and provides certainty of the outcome.

Next steps

As follow up, I have asked the City’s internal auditor to conduct a full review of risk associated with complex capital projects so that we have the benefit of lessons learned during this project, and so that we can apply that information to future projects.

Costs

The entire project (including City Hall and the POA Court) ran a deficit of $257,000 before legal fees and settlement costs. After legal fees and settlement costs, the total project deficit is $8,346,261.

The City’s total legal costs are $2,233,982.

The City will fund the settlement costs not already provided for from its capital asset renewal reserve, the Legal/OMB reserve and the Capital Tax Reserve fund. The funds transferred from the capital asset renewal reserve fund will be repaid over a five-year period.