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First Nation faces new suit

Owed over $2M, firm says; community countersues

By: Mia Rabson

Friday, Sep. 21, 2012 at 8:03 AM | Comments: 0

OTTAWA -- The First Nation that partnered with Manitoba Hydro on the Wuskwatim dam is facing a second lawsuit over the project.

Tracks and Wheels Equipment Brokers from Sudbury, Ont., claims the Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation owes it more than $2 million for an unpaid contract to maintain heavy equipment.

NCN is countersuing for $6 million, claiming the company didn't provide what it said it was going to, which cost NCN time and money.

The case dates back to 2006, when Tracks and Wheels entered into a contract with NCN to service heavy equipment being used to build an access road to the Wuskwatim dam site from Provincial Highway 391. Tracks and Wheels claims it did the work and NCN ignored hundreds of invoices worth $1.8 million between December 2006 and October 2008.

In a counterclaim filed in a Manitoba court in 2009, NCN claims Tracks and Wheels agreed to lease it eight rock trucks with a two-year warranty, and to provide at no cost, two "standby" trucks for use when the others were undergoing maintenance. NCN claims Tracks and Wheels failed to honour the warranty, didn't provide the standby trucks, and the trucks provided weren't suitable for the purpose for which they were intended, frequently broke down and required excessive repair and maintenance.

The counterclaim also says Tracks and Wheels breached the service contract repeatedly, including charging for work that was supposed to be covered under warranty.

Tracks and Wheels denies the allegations in the counterclaim.

NCN Chief Jerry Primrose did not respond to phone calls this week.

Tracks and Wheels lawyer Reynolds Mastin said the company has not proceeded further with the suit because it is nearly impossible to get any money from a First Nation even if they were to win the lawsuit.

"(My client) is a great believer in First Nations but he has got to think twice before he does business with one again," said Mastin.

He said the unpaid contracts put Tracks and Wheels in financial peril for a time, forcing layoffs.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca

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