Former B.C. premier hired for Manitoba Hydro review faces sex assault allegation: U.K. report

A former British Columbiapremier hired to review cost overruns with Manitoba Hydro megaprojects is being investigated by Scotland Yard for an alleged sexual assault related to his stint as Canadian High Commissioner in London, according to U.K.-based publication The Telegraph.

Gordon Campbell isunder investigation for an incident said to have occurred in January 2013. Scotland Yard has confirmed only that Westminister police are investigating the allegation.

"A 54-year-old woman contacted police on 3 January 2019 and allegedshe had been sexually assaulted at an address inGrosvenorSquare," ChiomaDijeh, media and communications manager with London's Metropolitan Police Service (MPS),said in anemail.

CBC News hasn't independentlyverified details published by the British newspaper.

Campbell, the former Liberal premier of B.C. and later Canada's senior diplomat in the U.K., was hired last fall to review Manitoba Hydro projects.

The external economic review was to be focusedon the decision-making processes behind theKeeysakGenerating Station and theBipole III power transmission line projects.

The province put $2.5 million toward the external, Campbell-ledreview.

A Manitoba governmentspokesperson was unable to say whether Campbell will continue to be involved with the review.

"As a government, we take any report of sexual assault very seriously," the spokesperson wrote in an email Friday night."We have only just now heard about the allegation and will have no further comment at this time."

London police said no arrests have been made but the investigation continues. MPS spokesperson Dijehdeclined to confirm whether Campbell was the subject of the investigation.

The Telegraph article quotes Campbell's spokesperson noting an investigation was already conducted by the Canadian government and the allegation was found to be without merit.

Bipole III and Keeyaskhave been plagued by significant cost overruns: In 2007,Bipole III was originally forecast to cost $2.2 billion, but that ballooned to $5.04 billion in a recent Hydro annual report.

Keeyaskwas initially pegged at $6.5 billion; Hydro revised that to $8.7 billion in 2017; and a review that same year warned the dam could end up costing closer to $10.5 billion.