Executive summary

Allegation information

A complaint was received by the office of the Auditor General which lead to an investigation of the following seven allegations:

Allegation #1	The City of Windsor is promoting a US based company to provide insurance on our Water/Sewer connections. The company is US based and Canadian in name only.
Allegation #2	The City of Windsor is spending money promoting an American company to provide a service that is readily available to homeowners through their standard home insurance coverage as a paid add on.
Allegation #3	It would have been much more straightforward to advise citizens that they should inquire directly to their home owner insurance provider first, before promoting any external service provider.
Allegation #4	The letters citizens receive appear to indicate that the City of Windsor is endorsing this company or that this company is somehow affiliated with the City.
Allegation #5	If you investigate the company’s actual ‘user complaints’, here and in the USA, one can see that their service isn’t that good.
Allegation #6	The City of Windsor is getting a commission or kickback from SLWC based on citizen enrollment into the program. The financial arrangement is not disclosed. This is a hidden tax.
Allegation #7	The City of Windsor has shared personal information with this company and that is not appropriate.

Investigation approach

For each allegation we developed investigative procedures. Details of our activities may be found in the Summary of procedures and results section later in this report.

Summary of procedures & findings

Based on the procedures we executed and the results of our testing, a summary of our analysis of each allegation is included below (futher details are included in the Summary of Procedures and Results section of this report).

With regards to allegation #1 (The City of Windsor is promoting a US based company to provide insurance on our Water/Sewer connections. The company is US based and Canadian in name only) we noted that:

The City is offering an optional Service Line Warranty program to homeowners, and participation is optional and voluntary for homeowners in Windsor. Service Line Warranties of Canada or SLWC is a private company that provides optional water and/or wastewater warranty plans to homeowners. It is an affiliate of Utility Service Partners Private Label, Inc. (USPPL) which is a US based entity.

With regards to allegation #2 (The City of Windsor is spending money promoting an American company to provide a service that is readily available to homeowners through their standard home insurance coverage as a paid add on) we noted that:

We detected no evidence to support the allegation that the City of Windsor spent money promoting this company other than using its existing internal resources to update its website, drafting and reviewing the agreement, reviewing and approving the content within the marketing letter, and spending time in carrying out the investigation about the credibility of the company.

While some insurers may provide this endorsement as an option, not all appear to, or some may be more costly. Others may offer more amenable terms. Several insurers are also local legal entities of non-Canadian corporations.

With regards to allegation #3 (It would have been much more straightforward to advise citizens that they should inquire directly to their home owner insurance provider first, before promoting any external service provider) we noted that: