FIGHTING CORRUPTION
Montrealers have grown accustomed to living with corruption. It has come to be viewed as inevitable, like bad weather. But it need not be, at least not to the extent uncovered in the 1,741-page report tabled Tuesday by Justice France Charbonneau.
Few people will be surprised by Charbonneau’s finding that organized crime has infiltrated the construction industry. Nor was there any great astonishment over a damning report into snowclearing made public Monday. That investigation, by the city’s inspector-general, detailed collusion among private contractors to manipulate the tendering process and drive up costs.
In any society, some corruption will always exist. Public resignation, however, doesn’t have to. And even if some corrupt individuals will always try to play the system, if the appropriate institutional checks are in place, they will not succeed.
Charbonneau makes 60 recommendations to help the Quebec government fight corruption and collusion in the construction industry. They include the creation of an independent authority to oversee public contracts, increased penalties for companies that break the law and reforms to political donation rules.
Some of the necessary institutional reform is already underway. The police anti-corruption unit known as UPAC has been an effective addition to the province’s crime-fighting arsenal, for example. But the general public also has an important role to play.
Corruption has become so familiar in the public consciousness that it has taken on a semblance of caricature. TV viewers tuning in to the Charbonneau commission hearings were introduced to nicknames like “Mr. Sidewalk” and “Mr. 3 Per Cent,” and stories of old men stuffing their socks with rolls of cash. But viewers were not watching cartoons, and what they were seeing was anything but funny. The consequences of corruption are real; the costs can be measured in unnecessarily high taxes, inferior infrastructure and an erosion of societal values.
In delivering her report, Charbonneau urged ordinary Quebecers not to be discouraged. She asked them to be on the watch for signs of wrongdoing in the workplace and to report any perceived ethical irregularities. She called on the government to improve protection for whistleblowers, including shielding their identities and providing more support for their efforts.
The report was four years in the making and produced more than 70,000 pages of transcript. About 3,600 documents were submitted into evidence and 300 witnesses heard. It came at a cost of more than $40 million to taxpayers and was delivered to Premier Philippe Couillard at the same time that it was made public. It is up to the government to study the recommendations, choose its priorities and decide on a course of action. The hardest work starts now.