Nova Scotia Supreme Court case
against HRM & Imperial Cleaners
FEBRUARY 28, 2025
The legal filing states:
- On or around February 20, 2025, HRM awarded the contact to the Respondent, Imperial Cleaners Ltd (“Imperial”). Imperial’s employees are not unionized.
- Imperial’s bid failed to meet the necessary requirements of the Procurement Policy (Administrative Order Number 2O22-0120-ADM) (the “Policy”) namely:
- It failed to provide a “fair/living wage” in accordance with s. 21(2)(0) and 21(3) of the Policy, and as further described in Appendix “C” of the Policy, and
- it failed to achieve social value or social impacts such as socially responsible production.
- HRM failed to properly weight or score the living wage and social value components of the Policy when preparing the bid tender package and evaluating the bids.
- HRM failed to request that Imperial provide HRM evidence of its compliance with the living wage requirements set out Section 8 of in Appendix “C” of the Policy.
- The decision to award the contract to Imperial was therefore unreasonable and/or incorrect and should be quashed.
BACKGROUND
Prior to the NS Supreme Court filing, SEIU wrote to the HRM’s Chief Administrative Officer, Cathie O’Toole, Mayor Fillmore, and City Councillors.
The CAO, Mayor, and City Councillors were advised that through several interviews that SEIU had conducted with non-union workers of Imperial Cleaners LTD at multiple HRM-owned properties, it was revealed that Imperial Cleaners had not been paying its employees a living wage.
This was a direct violation of the HRM Living Wage Requirement that O’Toole and many Councillors had professed was being practiced by their suppliers, specifically in eligible contracts that were awarded since the implementation of the 2022 Administrative Order.
SEIU further advised that they believed Imperial Cleaners has a strategy to acquire custodial contracts at the lower bid with the egregious intentions of circumventing HRM’s procurement requirements. It also advised that it is reasonable to assume based on their investigations that Imperial Cleaners would continue its pattern of violating the Living Wage ordinance at the Alderney Gate site when it took hold of custodial services on March 1, 2025.
No action was taken by the HRM at the time.
In December 2025, a second letter was sent via email to the Acting Chief Administrative Officer, Brad Anguish, with Mayor Fillmore, Honorable Councillors and Relevant Staff all copied, about the severe labour violations of janitors at HRM sites. The officials were notified of the legal complaints that had been filed against Imperial Cleaners at the Labour Standards Division of the Department of Labour and Advanced Education, as well as the Nova Scotia Labour Board.
FILING
