The Parti Québécois is demanding a special audit of a $73-million contract awarded by Cree Construction to the construction company Beaver Asphalt to build the 116-km Route du Nord connecting Chibougamau to Nemaska. Beaver Asphalte is owned by the family of Tommy D’Errico, former treasurer of the Quebec Liberal Party.
The contract was awarded without the regular tendering process. Cree Construction spokesman Jean-Pierre Motard defended the deal saying Beaver Asphalte got the lucrative contract because the two companies already had a long relationship and “things were going well.” Motard also dismissed the PQ’s claim that Beaver Asphalte was pocketing $30 million in profits on the deal. “I don’t know where that figure came from,”he said. The auditor’s office told The Nation that a special audit will not be ordered on the deal. PQ MNA Jean Garon, the party’s transport critic, said in an interview that more “rigorous controls” are needed when contracts are given out involving public funds.
“It may be part of a larger problem,” he said. A second Cree Construction project has also been the subject of controversy. In a November article in La Presse, the chief of the Band Council of Ouje -Bougoumou, Abel Bosum, accused Cree Construction of awarding Beaver Asphalte part of a $12 million contract for projects in his community, again without tender.
Beaver Ashpalte spokesman Robert Viau refused to discuss the two contracts. “Forget it, forget it. I don’t want to comment on that.”
