Opposition parties call for Laurent Lessard to step down
Quebec's three opposition parties are calling on Transport Minister Laurent Lessard to step down temporarily as conflict-of-interest allegations against him mount.
The Liberals are resisting calls by the Parti Québécois, Coalition Avenir Québec and Québec Solidaire to relieve Lessard of his duties so the government's ethics czar, Jacques St-Laurent, can look into the allegations.
The opposition parties are questioning subsidies awarded to a public housing organization that employs his wife, as well as grants made to businesses run by Yvon Nadeau, a political aide who worked in his riding office in Thetford Mines.
The CAQ said Wednesday that it also wants Quebec's auditor general to look into the various allegations facing Lessard.
"We're not saying he's guilty, but it raises questions and, combined, these allegations blemish his reputation and distract him from his duties as transport minister," said Québec Solidaire MNA Amir Khadir.
Khadir pointed to existing corruption probes underway at Quebec's Transport Ministry that need the minister's full attention.
Lessard is also the government's lead on the contentious Uber file.
He is the province's third transport minister so far in 2016.
Robert Poëti was removed from the position in a January cabinet shuffle, while Jacques Daoust resigned from the post last month amid scrutiny over the Rona-Lowe's transaction.
Lessard already focus of investigation
On Wednesday, the Journal de Montréal reported that five housing projects run by the Groupe ressources techniques Beauce-Appalaches (GRTBA), the non-profit agency employing Lessard's wife, Johanne Binette, received $12.7 million in subsidies while Lessard was municipal affairs minister.
That story follows revelations Tuesday by CAQ MNA Simon Jolin-Barrette and PQ deputy Agnès Maltais that Nadeau was involved with a number companies while he was working for Lessard.
One of those companies, Innoltek, which Nadeau served as business development director and a member of the board, received $5 million from the government in 2011.
The ethics commissioner is already investigating whether a $3-million subsidy granted in 2015 to Pyrobium, a green-energy business owned by Nadeau, broke any government rules.
Nadeau worked for Lessard's office from 2003 to 2013 and again from 2014 to 2015, leaving just before the subsidy was awarded to Pyrobium.
The PQ, which lodged the complaint, claims that Lessard used his position to influence the government's decision to award that contract.
The PQ claims that Pyrobiom is a Liberal-friendly firm whose executives, along with those of related companies, have donated more than $100,000 to the Liberals since 2000.
Questions have also been raised about a $1-million subsidy awarded in 2008 to a Nadeau-operated ski hill in Lessard's riding.
Liberals deny any conflict
On Tuesday, Lessard responded to concerns about the subsidies granted to Nadeau's businesses, saying he did nothing wrong.
He said he's confident St-Laurent will come to a similar conclusion.
Lessard, in Toronto for a meeting of provincial transportation ministers Wednesday, told Radio-Canada there was nothing wrong with his wife working for a publicly funded public housing agency or with the subsidy granted to that agency.
"There's no concerted effort to employ the minister's wife three or four days a week," he said.
"These organizations don't invent their needs."
Liberal House leader Jean-Marc Fournier said the opposition parties' call for Lessard to step down is "shameful" and dismissed the suggestion that the subsidy granted to his wife's employer constituted a conflict of interest.
Fournier said the ethics commissioner was always aware of Binette's job and that it was bureaucrats — not Lessard — who granted the funding to the agency she worked for.
