Consultants blame town for Virden’s water-supply woes

A consulting firm has denied wrongdoing in response to the Town of Virden’s water-supply lawsuit and said that any damages resulted from the municipality’s errors.

W.L. Gibbons & Associates Inc. and Stephen Wiecek filed a statement of defence early this month saying that Virden’s negligence, or failure to follow recommendations in a report prepared for the town, explain any damages or losses experienced. The statement also said that different third-party contractors, suppliers and consultants are responsible for damage the town claims to have suffered.

The Winnipeg-based firm requested that the lawsuit be dismissed and the firm’s legal costs be paid by the Town of Virden.

The lawsuit came after the town discovered in 2025 its Leask aquifer, used since 2021 for its water supply, could not sustain the population of roughly 3,100 people and had become “seriously low.” As a result, the town switched to a previous aquifer, which contains high arsenic levels.

The Town of Virden filed a lawsuit in February stating it chose the Leask aquifer after “untrue, misleading and/or negligently made” representations from the provincial government and W.L. Gibbons & Associates. The town said it “has suffered and continues to suffer loss and damage” as a result.

The municipality said that W.L. Gibbons & Associates issued a report recommending the Leask aquifer be used as a water source when it was retained to investigate groundwater supply in 2020.

The consulting firm denied that its report recommended the town source water solely from the Leask aquifer. The firm stated that it said the Leask aquifer may “only have the potential to provide the town with a partial supply of water, and it may be necessary to supplement the supply,” and that maintenance and monitoring of the aquifer was required as well as other conditions.

The firm denied “each and every allegation” set out in Virden’s lawsuit.

It claimed the town and the Manitoba Services Water Board did not implement monitoring requirements set out in its report and that maintenance requirements were not implemented until late 2025.

The firm also claimed that it reminded the town about the requirements in 2022 and until 2024, and reiterated the need to utilize the 1992 aquifer in conjunction with the Leask aquifer.

The firm also asked the courts to hold the provincial government liable to contribute or indemnify the engineering firm for “any and all such liability” which may be awarded against it.

The Town of Virden specified in its lawsuit it was looking to recover costs from obtaining a third party to investigate the Leask aquifer and engineering services provided by W.L. Gibbons & Associates, as well as the cost of private wells, temporary water supply and replacement wells, expenses relating to the sourcing and construction of a replacement water supply source, costs of obtaining professional inspections and reports, and loan payments.

The town claims a third-party hydrogeological engineer it hired found the new aquifer “did not have the proper water supply capacity and should not have been recommended or developed as the town’s water source.” The new aquifer and pipes, which the town began using in 2021, cost $3 million.

W.L. Gibbons and Associates did not respond to a request for comment.

Virden Mayor Tina Williams did not respond to an email request for comment.

» cmcdowell@brandonsun.com, with files from Kevin Rollason