Union questions need for new transportation agency

The Quebec government’s plan to create an independent agency to make the awarding and management of transportation projects more efficient and free from political meddling may backfire, warns the union representing the 25,000 professionals working for the provincial government.

“I assume the minister has done his homework, but we are going to study this bill carefully … and propose corrections as needed at the parliamentary commission,” said Richard Perron, president of the Syndicat des professionnelles et professionnels du gouvernement du Québec.

Public employees are cur- rently subject to a law that allows them independence in their work, without being influenced or unduly pressured by politicians, Perron noted. But Bill 68, tabled in the National Assembly Wednesday by Quebec Transport Minister Sylvain Gaudreault, would remove workers for the new agency from the aegis of that law.

“The failures revealed by the Charbonneau Commission should push us toward a maintenance of this independence,” Perron said.

These types of arm’s-length agencies are raising concerns elsewhere in the world where they have been introduced, Perron said.

“On the one hand, they are difficult to control, rein in, direct and evaluate … on the other, they are protective of their autonomy, so they tend to release information drop by drop … when in fact, a better control and as much openness as possible are key to fighting corruption and collusion,” he said. “Those who are looking for get-rich strategies to the detriment of the public good could not hope for better than to see the state exploding into a thousand different more or less controllable pieces,” he added.

The Conseil du patronat du Québec, which represents large-business owners in the province, was less critical of the bill than labour leaders, but questioned the necessity of the government’s move.

In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, the Conseil stressed it is not opposed to the government’s move, but questioned wheth- er it makes sense to create a new structure to delegate work currently done by the ministry in order to “depoliticize” the granting and management of public transportation contracts.

“The intentions underlying the creation of this agency are praiseworthy,” said Conseil chairman Yves-Thomas Dorval. “However, its establishment could have the effect of encouraging pointless and costly overlaps and of adding to the regulatory and administrative burden on businesses. What’s more, it could confirm the perception of part of the population that the process of attributing public contracts is systematically politicized.”