St-rémi mayor facing charges
Anti-corruption unit arrests Lavoie at his home
The mayor of St-Rémi spent an uncomfortable day at the offices of the provincial anticorruption squad Friday where he learned he faces fraud and breach of trust charges.
Mayor Michel Lavoie, 58, was arrested at his home in the small South Shore city, about 30 kilometres south of Montreal. The mayor’s son, Sébastien Lavoie, 36, and Dominic Dorais, 40, president of Dorais Construction Inc. were also arrested on Friday.
“We weren’t expecting this this morning,” said Cynthia Ménard, a spokeswoman for the town of St-Rémi. “We were surprised, but we continue to run city hall, all the usual services, like we normally would.”
Ménard said it will be up to Lavoie to decide whether he stays on as mayor while he faces criminal charges. Richard Marcotte, the former mayor of Mascouche, resigned last month after being charged in an anti-corruption investigation several months before. Marcotte faced intense public pressure calling for his resignation before he eventually stepped down.
“Legally, nothing will prevent (Lavoie) from staying. The law hasn’t been adopted yet,” Ménard said in reference to a bill tabled in the National Assembly in November which would allow a judge to order any mayor or councillor to be suspended with pay if they face a criminal charge that could lead to a sentence in a federal prison.
Anne-Frédérick Laurence, the spokeswoman for Unité permanente anti-corruption, said Lavoie was taken to Sûreté du Québec headquarters on Parthenais St. in Montreal and interrogated. The mayor, his son and Dorais were to have been released on Friday on a promise to appear at the Longueuil courthouse on March 8.
According to a release issued by UPAC, the mayor faces charges of breach of trust, fraud and conspiracy. Sébastien Lavoie faces charges of fraud and conspiracy, while Dorais is charged with breach of trust, fraud and conspiracy.
(The mayor) abused his position to make sure that lu- crative construction projects were given to his family and business partner by manipulating offers and changing zonage, UPAC stated in the release.
The Gazette has learned that the younger Lavoie and Dorais were partners in a real estate management company called Gestion Visao Inc. According to court and land registry records, in 2008, Sébastien Lavoie was listed as the company’s president and Dorais as its secretarytreasurer but, according to the Quebec business registry, Gestion Visao’s administration has since changed. Among the projects the younger Lavoie and Dorais worked on together in 2008 was a residential building on St. Paul St. in St-Rémi.
Sources familiar with the investigation said on Friday that part of the UPAC investigation involved a zoning change that permitted the construction of a condominium building, but they declined to specify which one. The anti-corruption squad also investigated a seniors’ residence and a contract awarded to construct Saint-Rémi’s firehall.
Lavoie has been mayor of the Montérégie town of Saint-Rémi since 2005. The city has a population of more than 7,000. He is the prefect of the Jardins de Napierville regional county municipality, a grouping of 11 different municipalities stretching to the U.S. border that issues public works contracts on shared infrastructure projects.
According to a story published in Le Devoir in 2010, UPAC investigated a contract Saint-Rémi awarded to Constructions Dorais Inc., in 2008, to construct its firehall. The newspaper reported the public tender was made at the request of the mayor and that it only lasted for a week, when most tenders last about a month.
Dorais Construction Inc. was awarded the contract after submitting a bid of $1.27 million, the lowest of only two bids made. The firehall construction contract was a major investment for the small city. According to a list of contracts it awarded through public tender over the past year, Saint-Rémi only issued one worth more than $1 million for infrastructure.
A representative with Dorais Construction Inc. said Friday morning that the company had no comment on the arrest of Dorais.