Canada’s Inaction Action Plan Funding the Mob?

It’s good to know that 80% of our ‘Canadian Economic Action Plan’ dollars are potentially going to the mob.

Here’s some background research:

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/742791–building-a-case-against-quebec-firms

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/711770–mob-linked-to-road-contracts

In 2010, my hope is that the Conservatives will have to face yet another inquiry, this one into the proportion of infrastructure spend that goes to the mob.

NOTE:  Thanks to some feedback, I was told that two of the links are no longer functioning.  I’m not about to speculate on what happened there, but here’s the story from the first link to the Toronto Star:

MONTREAL–Was this the start of a historic corruption scandal that is about to rock Canada – or was it simply a few isolated incidents that made headlines in 2009?

For much of the year Quebec was bombarded by allegations of scams, involving construction companies, politicians and the Mafia, to suck down taxpayer cash.

With Ottawa now showering billions on the biggest infrastructure spending spree in Canadian history, there’s potential the scandal might go federal in 2010.

Some whistleblowers came forward this year to say some Quebec construction companies have formed a cartel to set shockingly high prices for infrastructure projects.

Companies are supposedly threatened if they refuse to play along and, according to one groundbreaking investigative report, some of the profits are shared with the mob and political parties.

But others in the industry counter that the problem is being overblown – that it is the handiwork of a small but powerful group of contractors who break the rules, but that it’s not an industry-wide problem.

The chorus of demands for a public inquiry has been unrelenting since the barrage of allegations began. They read like something out of a Hollywood script, wild tales of intimidation, bid-rigging, inflated contracts and organized crime involvement.

The controversy has already exacted some political damage. Premier Jean Charest’s Liberals have seen their popularity drop, and their refusal to call an inquiry is seen as the only reason for a dip in their once-lofty poll numbers.

Since the federal government is contributing heavily to Quebec’s more than $40 billion in stimulus spending – and billions more in other provinces – Ottawa could be dragged into the scandal if investigators find irregularities with federally funded projects.

“We don’t know exactly what’s there, but what’s being discussed in the media is very troubling,” said Bertrand St-Arnaud, the Parti Québécois public security critic.

“A public inquiry will get to the bottom of all this and we feel that we have the support of the population, too.”

A recent poll suggested nearly 80 per cent of Quebecers favoured some sort of public inquiry. But the Liberals have held off.

Instead, they spent nearly $27 million on “Operation Hammer,” an anti-corruption task force mandated to investigate and clean up the construction industry.

But one construction executive is among the many proponents who say an inquiry is the only way to go.

Paul Sauvé, president of Montreal masonry company LM Sauvé, says he’s experienced the wild tales first-hand. He came forward this year to tell his story of how the Hells Angels managed to finagle their way into his family business during a time when he needed quick capital to finish a major project. They proceeded to try taking over his company and Sauvé became the victim of an alleged extortion attempt. After a series of threats, he went to the police.

“I had taken some serious hits – cars rammed, trucks burning, being told there wouldn’t be a trial because there wouldn’t be a body,” Sauvé said. “But the day the threats came against my 10-year-old daughter I said, `That’s enough'”

On Radio-Canada’s investigative news program Enquete, Sauvé described a group of contractors others have dubbed “The Fabulous 14.”

The group controls most of the bids in Montreal and, allegedly, its 14-odd member companies take turns “winning” bids in a conspiracy to keep rates high. Nobody else dares to submit a lower bid.

As a result of that scam road construction costs are nearly 35 per cent higher in Quebec than anywhere else in Canada, reported Radio-Canada. In that same report, a former provincial transport department engineer described how firms spoke in a special code in phone conversations to avoid being caught. They would use golf terms to discuss whose turn it was to win a public-tendering contract, and set the minimum price for that company’s winning bid.

Such talk of tees and foursomes was supposedly designed to make sure police never caught on to their plan – which, allegedly, was to make sure no company ever wound up underbidding them.

“It’s Vietnam and it’s right here in this city,” Sauvé said.

Months after Sauvé’s claims, Quebec provincial police announced they’d arrested people over an alleged Hells Angels attempt to bully its way into the bricklaying business and use the province’s masonry industry for money-laundering.

The ring – which allegedly included a real-estate agent, accountants and a union representative – was headed by the reputed boss of the Hells Angels’ Trois-Rivières chapter, Marvin (Casper) Ouimet, who remains on the lam.

Ouimet was the same man Sauvé entered into business with.