A Commons committee is investigating how the government handed out contracts to fix the crumbling 136-year-old West Block on Parliament Hill.
There’s talk of political corruption, payoffs, bid rigging, lawsuits, and involvement by organized crime.
The committee is now focusing on a $9-million bricks-and-mortar repair contract that two years ago went to LM Sauvé, a bankrupt Montreal masonry firm with mob links.
Last week, Quebec cops located the Hells Angels heavyweight, Normand Ouimet, who took over the firm two years ago. They promptly charged him with 22 counts of murder, but so far no allegations against him relate to either the LM Sauvé takeover or the West Block contract.
LM Sauvé lost the contract last year after public servants concluded the bankrupt firm didn’t know what it was doing.
A Montreal bonding company found itself holding the bag. Now, everybody involved from subcontractors on up is suing each other in order to get paid.
The Mounties are running their own criminal investigation while Public Works and Government Services Canada officials are trying to play down the police probe as much as possible.
Tom Ring, an assistant deputy minister, told the committee there was no bid rigging and that making last-minute changes eight days before closing the contract was quite normal.
The whole thing would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. The Conservative government is trying to keep the lid on it, which isn’t easy.
Still, there’s no question of calling a Gomery-style public inquiry. The best information so far has come from longtime Conservative backroom player and party loyalist Gilles Varin, who tripped all over himself while testifying before the committee earlier this month.
Sure, he was on retainer for LM Sauvé, he testified. But he never lobbied his Conservative buddies on behalf of his client. He just passed brochures around Ottawa to help his friend, LM Sauvé president Paul Sauvé, improve his public image.
After all, Sauvé had lost his firm to the mob, gone bankrupt, and then lost his big government contract.
A guy like that does need a little image help.
According to Varin, Sauvé paid him between $5,000 and $10,000 every month for the efforts to improve his image. Of course, Canada Post might have charged a little less to distribute brochures.
Varin also said he was paid an extra $70,000 after Sauvé got the $9-million contract but noted it wasn’t because of any lobbying he had done.
In addition, Varin was careful to stress that he wasn’t a lobbyist. That’s good for him because in Ottawa lobbyists have to be registered, which Varin isn’t.
So Varin kept repeating that he was just talking to old friends among the Conservatives but wasn’t trying to nail down contracts for his clients.
He’s absolutely sure he’s not a lobbyist. “I’m a strategic consultant in communications business development,” Varin said proudly.
Hmm. Run that one past us again, Gilles. What’s a strategic consultant in communications business development?
Opposition MPs were buying none of it. In the meantime, Varin said he took $118,000 from Sauvé over 30 months.
Sauvé has been saying he paid Varin something like $140,000 to help the firm win government contracts, not pass out brochures or fix his image. The Canada Revenue Agency will gladly help the pair sort out the little discrepancy.
At the same time, Varin said it was just a coincidence that he attended a party fundraiser at a Montreal restaurant in January 2009 at which former public works minister Christian Paradis was the guest of honour.
It was also just a coincidence that it was LM Sauvé that organized the fundraiser, Varin said.
The Liberals and New Democrats on the committee took great pleasure in listing well-known Conservatives who attended the event and in linking Varin to former cabinet minister Michael Fortier; Sen. Pierre Claude Nolin and his aide Hubert Pichet; Brian Mulroney confidant Fred Doucet; and Paul Terrien, chief of staff to Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon.
Meanwhile, Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe, speaking in the Commons under the protection of parliamentary privilege, said some Conservative fundraisers in Montreal took place at a restaurant owned by Ricardo Padulo, someone “close to the clan of Vito Rizzuto, an influential member of the Mafia.”
Conservative House Leader John Baird wasn’t amused. He said Duceppe was crossing the line. Duceppe didn’t repeat his comments outside the Commons.
Speaking before the committee, Varin did a lot of ducking. Claiming he didn’t have their permission, he refused to name his other clients.
As well, testifying under oath, he said he has no criminal record. But he remembers being fined 35 years ago for something to do with a “professional information commission” of which he was a member.
NDP MP Pat Martin, however, reminded Varin that he was convicted 30 years ago of five counts of fraud and breach of trust. Martin called it “shaking down a training school for personal gain.”
Varin said he got his last cheque from Sauvé in March 2009, which turns out to be about the same time the Public Works officials scrapped the West Block contract.
Maybe Sauvé started using registered mail to distribute his flyers after that.
Richard Cleroux is a freelance reporter and columnist on Parliament Hill. His e-mail address is
richardcleroux@rogers.com.
