Another senior official quits Winnipeg's civil service

Another senior manager is leaving Winnipeg's public works department, adding to the brain drain in one of the more technically complex branches of the city's public service.

Luis Escobar, the city's transportation manager since 2009, tendered his resignation in August. He said Monday he intends to leave the city in October for a job with consulting firm Stantec.

Escobar, who is stillworking for the city, is leaving at a time when his department is assisting Winnipeg Transit's study of an eastern bus corridor route and advising the chief administrative officer on the reopening of the Portage and Main intersection to pedestrians.

His resignation follows the sudden departure in May of former public works director Lester Deane, whose statements about the technical complexity of reopening Portage Avenue and Main Street placed him at odds with Mayor Brian Bowman.

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Bowman made the reopening of Portage and Main an election campaign promise in 2014. The city is expected to publish a report about the feasibility of the project before the end of the year.