Streetcar cost claims: what the public record shows, and what is still unknown
The City calls Legacy Beacon a $10.3 million project, up $1.9 million from the $8.4 million budget. The April 2023 public report listed the overrun, not the new total. A former engineer alleged costs were shifted; the City denied it. No public spend ledger.
Topics: Money and taxes
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Former city engineer Chris Nepszy alleged that senior officials told staff to shift money on Windsor's Legacy Beacon streetcar project so a tender shortfall would look funded. The City denied the claim. The lawsuit was settled in 2025, and the terms were not made public.
A new council takes office Nov. 15. Here is what contemporaneous public records show about those cost claims, what they do not prove, and what is still waiting on City Finance.
The cost ladder
These figures are approved budgets and later City-stated totals, not a verified final spend.
Council approved the riverfront pavilion, then called the Celestial Beacon, at an estimated $7 million in June 2020. After the project moved to Legacy Park, near the foot of Caron Avenue, staff later cited an approved budget of $8.4 million from October 2021. City news releases from the 2025 opening still call Legacy Beacon and Streetcar No. 351 "the $10.3 million project."
That last step is an increase of $1.9 million, or about 23 percent, from the $8.4 million figure. Commissioner Ray Mensour told the Windsor Star on June 13, 2023, that council had approved a $10.3 million total, $1.9 million more than the earlier budget. The earlier rise from 2020 to 2021 included a change of site and scope, not only a higher price for the same building.
What the April 2023 public report said, and what it left out
The April 3, 2023, staff report, C 52/2023, is the key public document from the tender crisis. Chris Nepszy and Ray Mensour are named as co-authors. The approvals block lists Shelby Askin Hager, Joe Mancina and then-CAO Onorio Colucci.
The report told council that four construction bids, excluding tax, ranged from $9,620,000 to $10,881,000, and that the low bid, from Oscar Construction, exceeded the projected construction budget. It named about $750,000 already spent on restoring the streetcar and about $840,000 on site investigation and design, and it said those sums would not be recovered if the project were cancelled. It still cited the prior $8.4 million budget. It did not print a new project total. It pointed to a private and confidential memo on negotiations.
City council then voted to receive the report and to pre-approve awards "within the funds allocated to this project by Council." Councillors Fred Francis, Fabio Costante and Angelo Marignani voted no.
CBC, citing the City, later reported that the Oscar contract was negotiated down to $9,136,682 in May 2023. The $10.3 million figure does not appear in the public April 3 report or in the public minutes of that meeting. The Star, reporting Mensour's June 2023 comments, noted that the public minutes contained no dollar figures.
The allegation, and the arithmetic
Press accounts of Nepszy's statement of claim, filed in March 2024, say that after the move to the Caron Avenue site, the tender came in "over budget by approximately $3 million," and that he was told to "remove internal costs and shift monies" so the funding would look adequate. The City's statement of defence, as reported by the Star and CBC, denied any attempt to hide costs or any instruction to remove internal costs. The City said that when costs rose and council approved more funding, Colucci offered to sign the report and that Nepszy insisted on signing it himself.
That defence is consistent with Nepszy's name on the public report. It does not prove, or disprove, that he was pressured.
The "approximately $3 million" figure does not line up cleanly with the public tender table. Oscar's low bid of $9,620,000, excluding tax, is $1.22 million above the $8.4 million budget cited in the same report. Adding HST at 13 percent brings the gap to about $2.5 million, closer but still not $3 million. We have not seen the original pleading, so we cannot say how the claim defined that figure.
The public report also named the restoration and design costs, which weakens a literal reading that all internal costs were stripped out. It does not rule out other labour or charges being kept off the project account, or negotiation totals being left in the confidential memo. A documented $1 million transfer from the Central Riverfront Improvement Plan (PFO-003-15) to Legacy Beacon incremental costs, approved in October 2021 as CR476/2021, is a public pre-commitment. It is not, on its own, proof of concealment.
What was spent, and what we are still waiting for
We have not found a public capital closeout or a life-to-date expenditure ledger for project 7191003, the City's account for Legacy Beacon and Streetcar No. 351. Year-end capital closeout lists from 2022 and 2023 do not show the project as closed. Council received the Sept. 30, 2025, capital variance report (C 163/2025) in January 2026, but the appendix that would list project-level budget, spend and commitments is not in the public agenda or minutes.
The City's 2026 capital budget, as published, has no line for that project. The City's project page now lists the work as in maintenance. That is consistent with a finished building. It is not a final cost.
Windsor News asked City Finance on Nov. 5 for the life-to-date budget, expenditures and commitments on 7191003, a reconciliation of the $8.4 million and $10.3 million figures, whether the restoration and design costs sit inside those totals, related charges on other accounts, the final Oscar contract and change orders, and how tax and any sponsorships were treated. On Nov. 9, City Treasurer Janice Guthrie acknowledged the request and said Finance would "provide a response under separate cover." As of the morning of Nov. 10, those figures have not arrived. A late reply is still welcome. We will update this story if the numbers come in.
Museum Windsor has not replied to a Nov. 5 inquiry about Streetcar No. 351's service history.
The lawsuit, and the Sunshine List
The wrongful-dismissal lawsuit was settled through mediation in 2025. Dilkens told AM800 on Nov. 18, 2025, that the matter had gone to city council for authorization, and that any payout that has to be reported under the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act would be reported. Nepszy appears on the Ontario Sunshine List for 2022 and 2023, when he worked for the City. He does not appear on the 2024 or 2025 lists.
That does not prove there was no payment. A sum under $100,000, a payment classed as damages rather than salary, a payment by an insurer, or a payment in 2026 would not show up on those two lists. It also does not prove the mayor's statement was false. It only shows that the public list he pointed to has, so far, no Nepszy entry after 2023.
A City freedom-of-information request for the settlement agreement was denied. That denial is under appeal at the Information and Privacy Commissioner as FOI 36-2026. We have not seen the settlement terms.
What this does not show
The public record does not prove that costs were hidden, or that they were not. It does not prove the "$3 million" shortfall as written in press accounts of the claim. It does not establish a final amount spent. The $10.3 million figure is the City's stated project cost. The restoration and design sums named in 2023 should not be added on top of that $10.3 million unless Finance confirms they sit outside it. A settlement is not a finding on the allegations.
What it means for you
Taxpayers can see the approved cost ladder, and they can see that the new total was not printed in the April 2023 public report or minutes. They cannot yet see a public ledger of what was actually spent. If you want those figures on the open record, ask the councillor who will represent you after Nov. 15.
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