What happened to BramptonU? New audit reveals $500k spent on failed proposal

Patrick Brown announces his candidacy for the federal Conservative leadership race at a rally in Brampton, Ont., March 13, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

The City of Brampton spent more than half a million dollars putting together a proposal for a university that never went past the planning stage, according to a partial forensic audit that was ultimately halted before its completion.

The partial audit, conducted by Froese Forensic Partners Ltd. and obtained by CTV News Toronto, suggested the firms contracted for the proposal were given an “unfair advantage” over other bidders.

The documents do not paint a complete picture of the decision-making, however, as the audit was cancelled prior to its completion by a split city council vote on Aug. 26, with five of nine councillors voting in favour.

At the time, Mayor Patrick Brown called the investigation a “witch hunt” while councillors who voted against ending the audit argued it would be a waste of money not to complete it, adding that members could be accused of “sweeping it under the rug.”

The partial audit reflects the investigation up until Aug. 26 and has been considered “final” as a result of the vote.

Brampton began advocating for a university of its own after the Progressive Conservative government cancelled a $90 million investment for a satellite campus in 2018.

According to the audit, consultants with ties to Brampton Councillor Rowena Santos and the mayor had begun working on a plan for a university long before a competitive bidding process took place.

Documents show that in 2019, Santos sent a blog post to Brown that outlined ideas for how Brampton may still be able to establish its own university. The blog post was written by David Wheeler, the founder of Stakeholder Research Associates Canada Inc. (SRA) and co-founder of the Academy for Sustainable Innovation Canada Inc. (ARI).

Wheeler was eventually contracted to develop a “White Paper” report on establishing a university in Brampton.

It is important to note the audit was halted prior to interviews being conducted with several key stakeholders, including Santos, Wheeler and consultant Rod Godfrey.

The audit found that even at this early stage in the proposal, a “potential conflict of interest” existed as Wheeler was a close friend and mentor to Santos—the councillor who first flagged his blog post to Brown and was present during the first meetings in which a sole-contract was awarded.

The documents, however, also point out that Santos obtained a legal opinion in August 2019 from Brampton’s then-ethics and integrity commissioner that concluded there was “no potential conflict of interest” because “no pecuniary interest existed.”

When asked for comment, Santos referred back to the legal opinion, which said that her past friendship with Wheeler had “no bearing on his involvement on the initiative.”

She said the draft report presented to council “included inaccurate information… particularly with accusations against another councillor and the mayor.”

The audit also found the firms were given an “unfair advantage” when city council decided to pursue the project and open it up to competitive bidding. Prior to the requests for proposals being issued, Wheeler had already sent a proposal to the mayor’s chief of staff as well as Santos.

“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, favoured Dr. Wheeler,” the audit said while noting that it also appears as though Wheeler had prior knowledge of the council's $300,000 budget for the work.

The contracts were awarded to SRA and ARI in November 2019.

CTV News Toronto reached out to both firms multiple times by phone and email for comment on the forensic audit, but did not receive a response.

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The audit also found another potential conflict of interest with SRA consultant Godfrey, who Brown described as one of his “closest friends” in his own book.

Godfrey was paid by SRA for government relations services as part of the project, the audit said.

Gary Collins, the director of communication for Brown’s office, said in a statement to CTV News Toronto the audit was cancelled by a vote of council after a request for more money was made. He described it as a “political investigation rather than an independent one.”

While a steering committee of councillors was created to oversee the audit process, Froese Forensic Partners is an independent financial investigative firm.

Brampton city council voted 5-4 not to make supporting documents and appendices associated with the draft audit public. This included any redacted elements of draft reports sent to council.

Collins added the allegations were also investigated by Deloitte at a cost of $500,000 and the report found “the person making the claim had lied and there was no wrongdoing.”

CITY ON HOOK FOR MORE THAN $500K FOR WORK

The original pitch made by both SRA and ACI was to complete the work under the city’s $300,000 budget—with $170,000 earmarked for stakeholder engagement and another $100,000 for academic planning.

But a breakdown of invoices included in the audit show that between November 2019 and March 2021, the city paid the SRA about $531,100.

This doesn’t include the more than $100,000 invoiced by ASI in consultant fees and expenses, some of which were dated prior to when the contract was awarded, the audit found.

The audit also found that work was performed “in part” and there was insufficient information to evaluate some of the other work done. Invoices, in some instances, were issued prior to work being completed or without a record of hours work, the documents showed.

“In our view the city approved invoices for payment without either milestones having been achieved or appropriate support for progress achieved in relation to agreed-upon activities. Accordingly, SRA invoices were approved for payment by the city without appropriate support for the work performed and invoiced to the city,” the audit said.

WHAT HAPPENED TO BRAMPTON U?

Despite the fact the audit shows a number of receptive meetings between the city, the firms and ministry officials—and includes segments of a report provided to council in May 2020 that said “recent conversations with provincial representatives showed that there was an appetite to have the city continue with its proposal to the province”—the province eventually decided to pull its support.

This occurred after the city approved multiple contract extensions with SRA and built a website touting BramptonU as an “innovative solution” to develop and retain home-grown talent.

“We will be partnering with leading academic institutions, offering the kind of programming our residents want and need to remain competitive in today’s and tomorrow’s economy,” Brown is heard saying in a video promoting the project.

The website is still currently active.

The Ontario government finally told the city in August 2022 it was not considering proposals for the creation of a new university. However, the audit shows officials hinted multiple times that the city may not be “the appropriate proponent to submit a proposal.”

The audit was also halted before the firm was able to receive any confirmation from the province regarding documentation submitted by the City of Brampton and/or its consultants “as related to a proposed Brampton University,” the documents note.

Collins said that while the original proposal may not have been approved, the advocacy involved resulted in Brampton getting a medical school as an extension of Toronto Metropolitan University.

“We began this process after meeting with the Premier’s Office and wanting advice on how to get this file back on track,” he said.

“We could have just accepted losing Ryerson four years ago. Instead, we fought to get a campus back. This advocacy shows we get results.”

With files from Chris Fox