Ottawa's city manager has suspended an unnamed employee for that worker's involvement with how the city dealt with sewage dumped near Petrie Island in the summer of 2006.
Kent Kirkpatrick made the announcement at a news conference called within hours after the issue was brought up at the provincial legislature.
"(The sewage spill) needed to be reported to the ministry . . . and it wasn't," Kirkpatrick told reporters late Tuesday afternoon.
Ontario's Environment Minister told the provincial legislature earlier in the day that the City of Ottawa did not make the province aware of the situation at Petrie Island until last May.
Kirkpatrick, however, had previously told the media that the City contacted the provincial government immediately after city officials were made aware of the situation on August 15, 2006.
"The information regarding that event was reported within days to the Ministry of Environment," Kirkpatrick said last week.
The beach at Petrie Island, located in Ottawa's east end, was closed for 45 days in August 2006 after a valve at a nearby sewage treatment plant malfunctioned, spilling 900,000 cubic metres of biological waste into the Ottawa River.
Although several municipal staff members knew the reason for the high levels of E. coli at the beach, it took nearly two years for them to tell the public.
The problem stemmed from an overflow pipe in downtown Ottawa that became stuck open after a rainstorm in July 2006.
Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien announced Friday that he was calling an inquiry into the situation.
Orleans Councillor Bob Monette is expected to introduce a motion to council on Wednesday to call for an independent probe into the matter.
"We need to get to the bottom of what happened -- who was responsible, who knew about it, how far did it go up the chain," said Monette.
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Chris Day
