The B.C. government will likely appeal a lawsuit that found it committed illegal bid shopping against a Richmond water systems company, says the firm’s lawyer.
“I would suggest an appeal is almost a certainty,” said John Logan, who represents Stanco Projects Ltd.
A B.C. Supreme Court judge ordered the province to pay Stanco approximately $100,000, after she found the province shopped a bid for a water tank at the Cypress Bowl ski area in Cypress Provincial Park.
The judge concluded the province had already awarded the contract before a dispute arose over the price of a water tank with an epoxy coating.
The province’s bid guidelines neglected to set out the bidding rules for one epoxy-coated tank. The government gave the contract to another company after the second company saw Stanco’s price quote and undercut it.
The judge dismissed the province’s claim, filed in conjunction with its defence against Stanco, that the engineering company Aplin and Martin, hired to oversee the contract, was ultimately at fault. Logan said that decision alone will likely prompt the province to appeal.
Because of the government’s bureaucracy and the ease of filing an appeal document, the province will likely file the appeal and then try to determine its next course of action, said Logan.
Jim Maxwell, the lawyer representing the province in the case, declined to say whether the province would file an appeal.
