The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources is investigating a case of possible conflict of interest related to an Ottawa development approved by both the city and the province based on a report that contained flawed flood predictions.

The City of Ottawa put the 700-hectare Kanata West development on hold after discovering in January that there was an error in the environmental assessment prepared by the environmental consulting firm Totten Sims Hubicki Associates.

Ministry of Natural Resources spokeswoman Bev McCreight said the ministry is re-examining a complaint that the consulting firm's Ottawa branch manager is married to the ministry employee who signed off on the project and that could represent a conflict of interest.

"Yes, a conflict of interest review is currently underway and not yet completed," McCreight confirmed Thursday. "The ministry does take these types of allegations very seriously."

City of Ottawa engineer Ted Cooper first raised the allegation in November.

He questioned whether the relationship between the two employees "influenced in any way the approval process and whether or not there is a breach of the Public Services Act," he said Thursday.

The ministry's local district office investigated and found no conflict.

In December, Cooper asked the deputy minister to do another review of the allegation.

Meanwhile some Ottawa city councillors say the city manager has already investigated — and ruled out — a separate allegation of conflict.

At the centre of that controversy is a senior city staffer whose husband is a director with Totten Sims Hubicki, the consulting firm.

Kanata North councillor Marianne Wilkinson says she's been assured by the city manager that the employee was not in a position of conflict when the flawed project gained city approval.

"Anything like that would be referred to the city manager and I know that he has looked into it and says it was not a problem," she said.

The city's auditor general is conducting his own investigation into the Kanata West development.

The development was to be built along the Carp River, near Scotiabank Place, under a plan that would involve narrowing the flood plain.

In January, the city discovered that the computer model used to predict flooding in the project contained a coding error, and consequently failed to account for water runoff from the 700-hectares of the development itself.

As a result, changes may need to be made to the plan and it has been put on hold.