The Southeast False Creek development site comprises 32 hectares of land, seven of which will be temporarily transformed into the Olympic Village during the Games. (CBC)

Investigators couldn't find out who leaked a confidential city document to the media last year largely because some councillors refused to take a lie detector test, Vancouver police said Tuesday.

Former Mayor Sam Sullivan asked Vancouver police Chief Jim Chu last November to investigate how the document regarding the construction of the Olympic Village for the 2010 Winter Games disappeared from a closed-door session on Oct. 14, 2008.

Sullivan called the incident a case of internal theft after details of a $100-million loan to bail out Millennium Development Corp., the Olympic Village developer, were leaked to the media.

Vancouver police concluded their investigation and released a heavily censored report on Tuesday.

"Preliminary interviews with everyone present during the meeting as well as voluntary participation in a polygraph examination did not yield the person responsible for the removal of the document," Const. Dave Jakeway, one of the investigators, said in his conclusion.

"A number of city councillors declined to participate in the polygraph examination, and investigators believe that this resulted in an inconclusive outcome," Jakeway said.

As a result, Vancouver police decided there was "insufficient evidence to recommend charges in this matter," Insp. Les Yeo said Tuesday.

A newspaper article published on Nov. 6 alluded to the financial hardships facing Millennium Development Corp., paralleling information that was discussed in the in-camera meeting and written in the confidential document, the police report said.

The confidential document was not distributed to councillors before the Oct. 14 council meeting, and each of the copies was numbered to ensure their retrieval, the report said. Those who attended the meeting were reportedly sworn to secrecy.

The returning of the documents was a "chaotic scene" with most councillors dumping their numbered copies on the council table.

Everyone denied responsibility

Vancouver police interviewed those who were present at the meeting and then began polygraph examinations on Jan. 29 this year. Each attendee of the in-camera session was sent an email requesting their presence.

Investigators couldn't identify the person or persons responsible for the document leak after completing 22 preliminary interviews and an undisclosed number of polygraph tests, the report said.

The parts of the report that said who did and didn't attend the polygraph examinations had been deleted from the report before its release to the media.

"Everyone interviewed during the preliminary interview denied responsibility for taking the document," the report said.

"The majority of those interviewed believed that the document was deliberately taken from the council chambers by someone at the meeting.

"The majority of those interviewed also doubted that a staff member was responsible for the disappearance of the document and, instead, believed it was a city councillor," the report said.