‘No pressure’ on winning bid, says former SHDM executive

The second in charge of the municipal agency that sold city-owned land known as Faubourg Contrecoeur to a construction firm for a fraction of its municipal assessment says he was subjected to “absolutely no pressure” as a member of the committee that picked the winning bid.

Jean-François Bertrand, who was associate executive director of the Société d’habitation et de développement de Montréal (SHDM), the agency that sold the land to Construction Frank Catania et Associés Inc. in 2007, testified under cross-examination on Wednesday that he would have withdrawn from the selection committee had he been subjected to pressure to choose one or another firm.

“I am very free,” Bertrand said in answering questions from a lawyer defending Paolo Catania, who headed the construction firm at the time.

Construction Frank Catania et Associés wound up paying $4.4 million for the land to construct an 1,800-unit housing development that has since been built. The municipal assessment of the land was $31 million.

Two other members of the selection committee had roles with Union Montreal, the party in power at city hall at the time: Marc Deschamps, the party’s official agent, and Mario-Paul Hus, a legal adviser to the party.

The two are expected to testify next week.

Another member of the selection committee was Daniel Gauthier, head of an urban-planning firm that SHDM contracted to write a business plan, carry out studies and oversee the bidding process.

Gauthier was arrested with Catania, former city executive committee chairman Frank Zampino and others in connection with the sale in 2012. Gauthier pleaded guilty to fraud when the trial opened in February 2016.

The other accused have opted for trial by judge alone.

Bertrand was assistant to SHDM executive director Martial Fillion, who was arrested in connection with the sale and died in 2013.

Bertrand testified on Friday that Fillion flouted rules to move the Contrecoeur project ahead, including offering unusually generous terms on a $14.6-million loan to Construction Frank Catania et Associés to decontaminate the site, fast-tracking a $2.9-million cheque to the firm and approving changes to the firm’s contract without first seeking approval from the SHDM’s board of directors.

Meanwhile, Quebec Court Judge Yvan Poulin, who is presiding over the trial, ruled on Wednesday that

The court doesn’t find it’s a case that requires an interruption of the procedures.

he will hear a new motion filed by Zampino’s defence to stay the proceedings only at the conclusion of the trial.

The motion argues that a 2015 police wiretap in a separate investigation that intercepted several calls between Zampino and his lawyers was illegal, breached his constitutional rights and amounts to an abuse of process.

Zampino’s lawyers had asked Poulin to hear the motion immediately.

However, citing jurisprudence in his ruling, Poulin said that he will be in a better position to assess the prejudice claimed by Zampino’s defence at the conclusion of the trial.

“The court,” the judge said, “doesn’t find it’s a case that requires an interruption of the procedures.”