Lawyers let loose with agency-store arguments
Hartland business challenges NB Liquor decision to award contract to competitor, but Crown corporation says assessment of bids was straightforward, just came down to math
A Hartland business’s lawyer says unfairness and political interference cost it a long-standing NB Liquor agency-store contract, but the Crown corporation’s counsel contends it’s just a case of sour grapes.
An extended legal battle between a numbered company owned by Peter Cook, doing business as Freshmart in Hartland, and the provincial Crown corporation that oversees liquor sales in New Brunswick came to a head Wednesday after three years.
Cook had filed an application for judicial review with the Court of King’s Bench in Fredericton in March 2021, claiming NB Liquor’s decision to end its agency-store contract with Freshmart and to award it to Hartland Valu Foods Inc. was erroneous.
The case has been the subject of numerous preliminary motions, including an effort to introduce evidence from a whistleblower - Stacey McKinney, a former financial executive at NB Liquor - who ultimately withdrew her allegations, signing a sworn affidavit in 2022 that she had no information that was pertinent to Cook’s case.
Justice Terrence Morrison heard arguments at the Burton Courthouse on Wednesday for the judicial review itself, and he reserved his decision on the issue to a later date.