Interim Auditor General - Southwest Quadrant Project
At its September 10, 2014 meeting, City Council established the position of Auditor General, on an interim basis, for the sole purpose of reviewing the process and administration related to the Southwest Quadrant (SWQ) project.
The City staff report recommending the establishment of this Auditor General can be found here. Council adopted By-law 319-2014 to establish the position of Auditor General under Section 223.19 of the Municipal Act, 2001.
Mr. George Rust-D'Eye was appointed by Council as the Auditor General for the purpose of this review.
The Auditor General has released his Interim Report (dated October 8, 2014) on this matter. The Interim Report can be found here.
The Auditor General has released a Status Update (dated December 9, 2014)--the update can be found here.
The Auditor General has released his Final Report (dated April 27, 2015). The Final Report can be found here.
Interim Auditor General - Financial Review
At its December 17, 2014 special meeting, City Council established the position of Auditor General, on an interim basis, for the sole purpose of reviewing the City's finances in order to provide a high level overview of the City's fiscal state with some general indication as to whether the fiscal state of the City has changed, and the nature of any changes, for approximately the last five years.
The City staff report recommending the establishment of this Auditor General is found here. Council adopted By-law 378-2014 to establish the position of Auditor General under Section 223.19 of the Municipal Act, 2001.
Mr. Jim McCarter was appointed by Council as the Auditor General for the purpose of this review.
The Auditor General has released his Report (dated January 26, 2015) on this matter. A Special Meeting of City Council was called for January 29, 2015 to consider the report. The complete Special Council Meeting agenda, including the Auditor General report is found here. The Auditor General's presentation to Council is found here. A copy of the minutes for the Special Council Meeting is found here.
Note: At the request of the Mr. McCarter, Interim Auditor General, for the City of Brampton, the following additional clarification is provided in regard to his report.
Sent: Monday, February 2, 2015 12:50 PM
To: McCarter, Jim
Cc: Honeyborne, Peter
Subject: Interim AG's report to Brampton City Council
Mr. McCarter,
We wanted to follow-up with you to correct a statement you made in your recent report to the City of Brampton (the City). We noted that on page 19 of your report you observed that:
“[S&P] stated in its most recent report that, as a result of the SWQ capital lease obligation and the
guarantee relating to the Powerade centre, it estimated Brampton’s tax-supported debt to be about
$215 million, which was at “a level which we believe is higher than most of its similarly rated peers.””
We understand that this observation is also repeated elsewhere in your report.
We assume that this comment is sourced from the Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services Nov. 29, 2013 Research Update which first announced our outlook change on the City. Specifically, we wrote “Standard & Poor's-calculated tax-supported debt amounted to C$215 million in 2012, or 47% of consolidated operating revenues, a level which we believe is higher than that of most of its similarly rated peers”. However, we would point out that when we reassessed the City’s credit rating in early 2014, we revised the Research Update and subsequent Supplementary Analysis for the City to use the net present value (NPV) of the capital lease (calculated at $131M) and removed the comment about this being higher than peers. Accordingly in our most recent report total tax-supported debt for 2012 is therefore calculated as $141M: $131M for the NPV of the capital lease + $10M related to a debt guarantee (the Powerade Centre guarantee).
We hope that this clarification is helpful.
Kind regards,
Adam Gillespie
Adam Gillespie
Associate
Sovereign & International Public Finance Ratings
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services
130 King St. W., Suite 1100, P.O. Box 486
Toronto, ON M5X 1E5