Council Unanimously Supports Project Manager
(Wednesday, June 14/2000)-- Members of Halifax Regional Council have unanimously endorsed Maurice Lloyd, P.Eng., as Project Manager for the $315 million Harbour Solutions Project.
Council agreed that Mr. Lloyd has no real or perceived conflict in his position as Project Manager, contrary to certain inferences which were contained in an article published by The Chronicle-Herald and The Mail-Star on June 7, 2000.
Mr. Lloyd disclosed his employment history at the time he was appointed Project Manager in 1998 and he advised HRM that his only connection with his previous employer, UMA Engineering, was that he was still a member of the company's Medical Insurance Program after he retired in 1996. Also, he pays 100 per cent of the contributions towards the plan.
In a recent e-mail to Members of Council after the article, by Reporter Steve Maich, appeared, Mr. Lloyd stated:
"Reports in the Chronicle-Herald and Mail-Star have commented on my previous involvement with UMA Engineering and the fact that UMA is included in one of the consortia. I have given the reporter all of the facts, but he has so far refused to print them. Thus, this e-mail to you.
I retired from UMA at the end of April, 1996, the month I turned 60 years of age. I have no financial ties with UMA and will not benefit in any way by their success or failure. As I voluntarily told the reporter when he called me, I am still a member of UMA's medical plan. This is a program that UMA makes available to all of its retirees who are under 65 years of age at the time of retirement. This type of program is made available by many companies and governments, including HRM. It means that the retiree does not have to search for a new medical plan while waiting for government programs to come into effect at age 65.
However, I pay the full cost for the medical plan myself, there is no cost-sharing by UMA.
There is another matter that I would like you to consider:
You have been provided with a copy of the evaluation and selection procedure. That was a very elaborate process, with multiple checks and balances, designed to be fair to all of the proponents. There is no way any single individual could exert influence on that process in order to insure that a particular company was included on a final list, or any list. As Chairman of the Selection Committee I did not even have to vote on the final list, it was the unanimous choice of the five committee members in attendance."
Signed,
Maurice E. Lloyd, P.Eng, FCIP
Mr. Lloyd said he has received a considerable number of telephone calls and letters of support since the article was published, and he offered his thanks to the many individuals who responded.
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John O'Brien
Corporate Communications Officer
(902) 490-6531
