Raids tied to communications firm
This week’s raids targeting municipal offices are linked to work done for Union Montreal’s 2001 election campaign by a communications firm that was also visited by UPAC Tuesday, René Bruemmer reports. Meanwhile, the latest defections from Union Montreal r
The police raids carried out at city hall and six boroughs and Union Montreal headquarters Tuesday were linked in part to a communications firm that did work for Gérald Tremblay’s mayoral campaign in 2001, company officials have confirmed.
Investigators with the provincial anti-corruption squad known as UPAC visited the offices of Octane Stratégies Tuesday and questioned senior partner Louis Aucoin. They were interested in an alleged debt owed by Union Montreal to the company for work linked to the campaign of 2001, that was said to have been repaid by the party using public funds in 2004, hidden in payments disbursed through its boroughs. The company was known at the time as Groupe CJB.
There have been reports UPAC is investigating the payment of a $100,000 bill.
That revelation — and a review of what Projet Montréal said were $2.5 million in contracts Union Montreal awarded to Octane Statégies and PR firm Morrow Communications between 2006 and 2011 — prompted Projet Leader Richard Bergeron Thursday to call on UPAC and the city’s auditor-general to launch an investigation into communications contracts awarded by city hall.
The communications companies quickly issued news releases saying Bergeron’s numbers were incorrect and malicious, and at least one threatened legal repercussions.
In reference to Tuesday’s UPAC raids, Octane Stratégies noted it was investigated over the same allegations by Elections Quebec in 2009 and found not guilty. Four investigators spent 350 hours visiting Montreal’s 19 boroughs and 15 demerged municipalities and questioned 28 people. No proof was found to substantiate the claim, and Elections Quebec issued a report concluding no illegal payment was made.
Octane Stratégies senior partner Pierre Guillot-Hurtubise said Thursday the company was somewhat mystified by the fact it was being investigated again, but was co-operating fully with investigators.
“If there had been a major outstanding debt owed to us by a party, I would have heard about it,” said Guillot-Hurtubise, who has been with the company since 2002.
In a statement, Octane Stratégies said all expenses related to the electoral campaign were paid for by Union Montreal using the appropriate funds. There was no debt and no public money was used in payments, it said.
At city hall Thursday, Bergeron and Projet Montréal councillor François Limoges presented documents obtained under an access to information request they said showed Octane Straté- gies won almost $2 million in contracts over a five-year period, with 234 contracts worth less than $25,000 and thus not requiring a bidding process. A further eight contracts worth more than $25,000 were awarded to the firm, they said.
Morrow communications obtained $439,000 in contracts, most without going through a bidding process, Bergeron said, describing the relationship between the companies and city hall as “incestuous.”
He questioned why the city was spending millions on communications firms with close links to Union Montreal when it has its own civil servants employed in public relations “who are more than capable of doing the work.”
Limoges noted that he worked at Octane Stratégies in 2001, when he was fresh out of university, for six months before being let go by the company. He didn’t have access to financial reports or see any illegalities, he said, but he was “deeply troubled by the closeness between the communications companies and Union Montreal” and said they were “unhealthy” and in need of investigation.
In 2008, The Gazette reported that the city retained Octane and Morrow to provide up to $2.25 million worth of support to internal communications for the city’s departments and 19 boroughs for three years.
A city spokesperson at the time said the city’s 92 public relations officers were “generalists,” while the firms can provide “high-level strategic help.”
Morrow Communications said in a statement that it was only asked to provide $137,000 worth of work out of a possible $1.5 million allowed for in the contract, and that the city awarded other contracts to other companies, showing it didn’t have undue influence.
Asked whether his own party ever used communications companies, Bergeron said absolutely not — Projet Montréal did all its own work “and would not let an outside company dictate what its strategies and platform would be.”
However, a review of Projet Montréal’s expenditures in the 2009 election campaign reveals it spent $119,000 on advertising, and more than $75,000 of the money went to a company called Ozone Communication and Design.
Officials with municipal opposition party Vision Montreal said it is common practice for political parties to use communications firms.
In its statement, Octane Stratégies notes that Limoges said he has no proof of wrongdoing, and says Limoges’s work with the company was considered unsatisfactory, leading to his dismissal.
The company said it “vigorously denounces the malicious allegations of the councillor, and is considering what recourse can be made.”