Collingwood council calls for judicial inquiry into 2012 hydro sale

William C. McDowell is quoted in the article Collingwood council calls for judicial inquiry into 2012 hydro sale which was published by Simcoe.com.

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The town received a presentation on Monday from William McDowell, a lawyer with Lenczner Slaght, who was hired to look into the deal that saw 50 per cent of Collus sold to PowerStream.

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McDowell has more than 30 years' experience as a litigation lawyer and served as associate deputy minister of justice for the federal government.

McDowell said there are “serious questions” regarding the sale, including who benefitted from the sale, potential conflicts involving senior management, lack of legal advice and council oversight of the transaction.

“We don’t know, what we don’t know,” he said. “It seems there wasn’t an annual business plan provided. Nobody knew what staff working for Collus PowerStream were being paid. That’s troubling.”

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McDowell said the costs wouldn’t be less than $1 million and, after a review of documents, any potential hearings weren’t likely to start until 2019.

“You want to get to a place where there is as much transparency as possible,” he said. “If you could ignore cost, it would be a no-brainer to do this.”