RMWB Sued Over Canceled Contract With RMWB
RMWB is facing a lawsuit from Tok Transit over the cancellation of a transit contract, with the company claiming that the municipality engaged in a breach of goof faith. The lawsuit was filed at the Fort MacMurray Court of Queen’s Bench on March 26, 2015, and it seeks $22.9 million dollars for debts owed as well as another $100 million in damages for the contract cancellation. The contract was canceled by RMWB on February 19, 2015, without cause. The reason given for canceling the contract was that a transit audit caused the municipality to review the business model used. Tok started to operate transit services in Wood Buffalo in July of 2014, entering into a 15 year contract in April of 2013. This caused the transit company to invest a sizable amount of resources into the partnership in order to fulfill contractual obligations.
In the lawsuit Tok Transit is claiming that RMWB canceled the contract for purposes which were improper and extraneous, and that this has resulted in a breach of good faith and honesty duties in the agreement performance. Audit results in October of 2014 were given to the audit budget committee for RMWB, and this audit showed that Tok Transit had missed some performance targets that were set. These targets included excessive complaints and construction and implementation delays. In February of 2015 RMWB decided to bring transit back in house, canceling the contract with Tok Transit as a result. Robert Kirby, the RMWB director of operations, stated “The contract is quite clear, it gives us 90 days without cause and we’ve exercised our right, it just makes sense to the taxpayers of Fort McMurray.”