The gate on a sought-after contract with the City of Winnipeg has shut for Bison Towing.
The company’s director, Zakria Shoaib, is speaking out, saying the city has failed to be transparent in its dealings — which he wasn’t expecting after moving to Winnipeg from Pakistan.
“I was wondering if there would be accountability,” Shoaib said. “But unfortunately, after being involved in this process, the expectations haven’t been met and things are not as they seem to be.”
Shoaib said his company was the lowest bidder on the Winnipeg police towing contract at $14.70. This to tow and store police vehicles, but also any vehicles officers seize, which makes it a multi-million-dollar deal.
When he asked why his company was turned away, he said he was told Bison Towing didn’t have enough storage space.
He begs to differ.
“I have the proof. It is 1,250 square feet. The requirement is 1,200 square feet. So if you need more space, you have to put that in the contract,” he said. “But my main problem is not that I didn’t get the contract. I want the process to be fair for everyone in the industry.”
After receiving multiple complaints about the document from different companies, city councillor Janice Lukes started investigating.
“What I found was really disturbing,” she said.
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“I went back to the last three contracts that were issued. The contract that the city issued in 2013, and awarded, was incredibly transparent. It highlighted the number of tows, the amount of storage capacity, and it highlighted incredible reporting requirements.
“Then the contract that was issued in 2019 was dramatically less transparent. Then the one in 2024, you couldn’t even figure out the number of storage requirements (or) the number of tows, and the reporting was basically almost eliminated.”
Lukes said this is concerning, considering an audit that was done in 2020. It made several recommendations on ensuring proper contract oversight for the city.
While those recommendations have been implemented for about two years, she said they are not being adhered to.
She said she went to public service with dozens of questions in August, but is still waiting for answers.
“I’m very concerned about how the purchasing department is overseeing the contract administration and transparency of contracts,” she said. “I hope I’m completely wrong, but from all of the hours and hours and hours, and evidence that I’ve been pulling together, and the lack of response, it gives me grave concerns that maybe there is more going on.
“I’m not making accusations. I’m just saying, ‘Why isn’t this information there?’”
In an emailed statement to Global News, the City of Winnipeg said, “additional legal language was added consistent with improvements to our processes; however, there haven’t been significant changes to the key areas of the bid instructions and qualifications in 2024 compared to the two previous iterations (2019 & 2014).”
It added, “inconsistencies” have been identified between tow contracts.
In an earlier email, it stated, “We asked for additional information in the bid sheet, that we felt would improve the quality of bids and make tow contracts across all City departments more consistent. Instead, it appears the bid sheet was not clear and the bids were not filled out correctly.”
Both emails said the request for proposal is being re-tendered.
Lukes said she feels like the situation warrants an external investigation.
“I’m not at that point yet to make a call to the RCMP. But depending on the information I get back, and what it reflects, that is a very big possibility.”
Shoaib agrees that external action is required.
“If they keep doing this, they will run out of companies in near future and then they will be stuck with one company and there will be no competition, unfortunately,” he said.
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City of Winnipeg faces criticism for controversial towing contract
