The Quebec construction industry is corrupt and inefficient, and illegal payouts are necessary to get business, the head of a masonry firm has told a committee holding hearings into a controversial $9-million renovation contract on Parliament Hill.
And in testimony that brought scandals that have infected Quebec politics in recent years all the way to the nation’s capital, LM Sauvé president Paul Sauvé said that he has seen intimidation, bid-rigging and bribes become widespread during his years of restoring historic buildings in Montreal and Ottawa.
The Conservative MPs on the committee played down the allegations, accusing Mr. Sauvé of inventing stories and scandals to cover up his financial problems, including the fact that one of his firms has gone bankrupt and that he once worked with a member of the Hells Angels.
“You’re looking for an enemy to explain why you lost [the Parliament Hill] contract and why you’re losing your company,” said Conservative MP Chris Warkentin.
Mr. Sauvé did not back down, asserting that when his company was bidding for a contract to work on the restoration of the Parliament Buildings, he believed that, to have any chance of success, he had to pay a commission of 3 per cent of the value of the Parliament Hill contract to Gilles Varin, a Montreal businessman and Conservative supporter.
The payments totalled about $140,000, but would have reached $300,000 if LM Sauvé had not gone into bankruptcy after losing the Parliament Hill project in 2009, Mr. Sauvé said. He compared the retainer to Mr. Varin with 5-per-cent commissions that are rumoured to go to members of the Mafia in the Montreal construction industry.
“Because we paid, we received,” Mr. Sauvé said of the federal contract.
Mr. Sauvé added that Mr. Varin frequently mentioned that he worked with government officials as part of his lobbying efforts, and left him with the impression that he paid these people.
“Yes, I thought that there were payouts that were made,” Mr. Sauvé said, adding that Mr. Varin boasted that he walked in government circles “with felt boots.”
Mr. Varin was not registered as a lobbyist for his work on the Parliament Hill project. In his testimony to the committee earlier this month, Mr. Varin said that he did not need to register because he never discussed the matter with anyone in government.
Overall, Mr. Sauvé said that the construction industry has become inefficient and expensive because of the corruption, and that one of the biggest unions in Quebec is in cahoots with the Hells Angels. He said he learned of the ties after LM Sauvé faced cost overruns on a restoration project in Montreal, and he was directed to a fund that belongs to the Quebec Federation of Labour. Over time, he said, he noticed that senior QFL officials had ties with senior Hells Angel Normand Ouimet, who is now facing murder charges.
“I’m convinced that the QFL collaborates with the Hells Angels and organized crime,” Mr. Sauvé said.
The QFL denied the allegation in a news release, calling on Mr. Sauvé to repeat his allegations outside of the committee room, where he would not be immune from a lawsuit.
When the Conservatives challenged Mr. Sauvé on his allegations, he responded that over the years, criminals have made threats against him, his child and his parents, at one time trashing his car while he was in it.
He also accused the federal government of vastly overpaying for the renovation work on Parliament Hill, saying that the project could be done for $1-billion instead of the current budget of $5-billion. Mr. Sauvé said there is too much red tape and no incentive for innovation, and that government officials insisted that the masons use extraordinary measures to protect the buildings during the restoration, contrary to standard practice everywhere else in the world.
He was particularly critical of the government’s insistence that the north tower of the West Block be wrapped with heated scaffolding, as if “the stones on Parliament Hill are more precious” than those in European cathedrals and castles.
Opposition members of the committee expressed shock at the testimony.
“It makes me nauseous,” NDP MP Pat Martin said after hearing tales of “palm greasing” in the corridors of power.
