Couillard chief of staff says he had contract with Liberal Bibeau

Premier Philippe Couillard’s chief of staff has revealed he had a professional connection with controversial Liberal fundraiser Marc Bibeau, who is under investigation by Quebec’s anti-corruption unit.

In a statement issued late Wednesday, as reports about the controversial Bibeau swirled for a second day in the legislature, JeanLouis Dufresne indicated that in the days he was vice-president of BCP Consultants, the firm got a contract from one owned by Bibeau, les Centres d’ Achats Beauward.

The 2010 contract was to handle communications, prepare documents and run media events.

“I had a professional connection with Mr. Bibeau as part of a contract with BCP consultants,” Dufresne writes. “Since I left BCP Consultants, I have had no contract with Mr. Bibeau.”

Dufresne, who was with BCP for 17 years, joined the premier’s staff in 2013. The premier’s chief of staff is one of the most powerful posts in government. He acts as a kind a gatekeeper, controlling who gets to see the premier.

Bibeau’s name surfaced this week with the news he and former premier Jean Charest have been under investigation by the province’s anti-corruption unit, which is probing illegal party financing as part of an operation tagged Mâchurer.

The Journal de Montréal and TVA, two Québecor-owned media outlets that have recently expanded their investigative reporting machines, this week published confidential UPAC documents indicating it is interested in the link between Bibeau and Charest.

It had both men under police surveillance until 2016, and had considered tapping their phones.

While described as a simple Liberal Party volunteer, Bibeau, in fact, was responsible for major party fundraising in 2000.

Dufresne’s decision to release the statement appeared to be a pre-emptive strike, because on Wednesday evening TVA revealed further allegations about Bibeau.

The statement landed just as Couillard was sitting down at a committee of the legislature to debate his spending estimates for the year with the two opposition leaders.

The session rapidly eroded into mudslinging.

Parti Québécois leader JeanFrançois Lisée, who walked into the committee saying he wanted to test Couillard’s “ethical reflexes,” pounced on the latest tidbit about Bibeau.

“Was he aware of this,” Lisée asked? “Is it something he’s worried about?”

Couillard defended Dufresne, noting he did not personally have a contract with Bibeau but the company he was working for did.

“How can we criticize someone from exercising their profession,” Couillard told the committee.

But Coalition Avenir Québec leader François Legault honed in on Bibeau saying his relationship with the government was just too cosy — and still is. He demanded Quebec’s auditor-general be called in to investigate 40 government office space contracts Bibeau’s firm has obtained over the years.

Noting Bibeau was responsible for raising about $10 million for the party, Legault demanded to know whether Couillard was aware of Dufresne’s past association with him.

“Did Philippe Couillard know Jean-Louis Dufresne was the intermediary between Marc Bibeau and the Charest government? Did he know that before he was hired? I am floored to hear this.”

“Mr. Couillard has tried hard to put a dike between him and the Charest government but these dikes are collapsing one after the other,” Lisée added Wednesday as he arrived for the evening sitting of the committee.

Later, the Journal de Montréal and TVA went further, reporting Bibeau appeared to have privileged and rapid access to the premier’s office.

Quoting a series of emails from 2011 between Marc Bibeau, his brother Robert Bibeau, Dufresne and former party fundraising director Violette Trépanier, the media outlet said they discussed at length what to say when then Parti Québécois MNA François Rebello questioned a contract about repairing the Mercier Bridge, which was awarded to Marc Bibeau’s firm, Schokbéton.

Furious, Treasury Board President Pierre Moreau, who was transport minister in 2011, called in the media for an evening news conference where he ripped the report saying it was not only baseless, it was an example of shoddy journalism.

The contract in question had nothing to do with Quebec because it covered the federal part of the bridge, he said.

“It’s not for a 30-second television clip that I am going to let anyone taint a person’s reputation,” Moreau said, adding the way the media in question is handling the information is “incorrect, fallacious, and doesn’t not take into account the facts or timeline.”