Lukes fails in bid to suspend CAO, but will try again in February

Coun. Janice Lukes has failed in a bid to suspend Winnipeg's chief administrative officer — but is vowing to try again in February.

The South Winnipeg-St. Norbert councillor spent the week trying to gather enough signatures from her council colleagues to trigger a special meeting of council Friday to discuss the performance of CAO Doug McNeil.

• Coun. Janice Lukes trying to muster support to suspend Winnipeg's top bureaucrat

Lukes needed a total of nine signatures from 16 members of council to trigger that special meeting. She wanted to suspend McNeil for 30 days, with pay, while council obtains more answers about the Sterling Lyon Parkway extension project.

The councillor conceded Thursday she was only able to gather a total of six signatures; her own, and those of the five other members of city council's unofficial opposition — Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan), Shawn Dobson (St. Charles), Ross Eadie (Mynarski), Jason Schreyer (Elmwood-East Kildonan) and Russ Wyatt (Transcona).

Lukes said she's disappointed council speaker Devi Sharma (Old Kildonan) as well as "EPC + 2" — Mayor Brian Bowman and his eight consistent allies on council — declined to join her bid to suspend McNeil.

"I'm disappointed they're not seeking out accountability when there's been such mismanagement," Lukes alleged Thursday in an interview. "Maybe EPC and the speaker know something I don't know about the review process."

She pledged to bring a notice of motion to council on Jan. 25 that will trigger a February council debate about McNeil's performance.

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Even without that notice of motion, Mayor Brian Bowman has said McNeil will undergo a performance review led by a panel of councillors this year.

Charleswood-Tuxedo-Whyte Ridge Coun. Marty Morantz has also pledged to call for an internal audit into the Sterling Lyon Parkway extension.

McNeil said in October he was taken by surprise by the route for the freeway, but a briefing note obtained by CBC News revealed he was presented with that information in November 2016.

St. Vital Coun. Brian Mayes said Thursday, while he believes "it would be premature" to suspend the city's top bureaucrat, he would like to see questions about the Sterling Lyon Parkway extension answered sooner rather than later.

"I feel like this is soaking up a lot of the oxygen in this place when we're doing some good work and moving forward in a lot of areas, so we need to get this resolved," Mayes said.