PQ minister laughs off demand she step down
ÉLAINE ZAKAïB IN SPOTLIGHT Wiretap evidence aired at inquiry raises ethical concerns from critic
QUEBEC — Despite opposition calls for her to resign, or at least be suspended, pending clarification of her actions, Élaine Zakaïb, industrial policy minister in the Parti Québécois government, said Wednesday night she did nothing wrong and will stay on as a minister.
In 2009 wiretap evidence aired at the Charbonneau Commission on Wednesday, Zakaïb, who at the time headed the FTQ Solidarity Fund’s regional investments arm, told FTQ president and Solidarity Fund chairman Michel Arsenault that investment projects proposed by competitors of Tony Accurso had been blocked.
And Zakaïb told Arsenault: “The less I know, the better.”
But at a hastily called news conference in the capital, Zakaïb told reporters that Jean Lavallée and Jocelyn Dupuis, heavyweights in the FTQ Construction wing, had blocked contracts proposed by Accurso’s competitors.
“I put an end to it,” she said, adding she acted in “complete integrity.”
Zakaïb said she met Accurso, the former kingpin of Quebec construction who now faces criminal charges, maybe twice and that she did not know then what now is
“When she knew, she closed her eyes. She is an accomplice.”
LIBERAL ETHICS CRITIC LISE THéRIAULT
known about Accurso, Lavallée and Dupuis.
The minister laughed off the suggestion by Liberal ethics critic Lise Thériault that she resign, recalling that Thériault had opposed creation of the Charbonneau Commission.
Thériault told reporters Zakaïb now is the minister who decides which businesses get government financing.
“Her job was to ask ques- tions,” the Liberal critic said.
“When she knew, she closed her eyes. She is an accomplice. She should resign.”
Christian Dubé, of the Coalition Avenir Québec, said he was “not certain of her guilt,” but recalling that Pauline Marois, running in the 2012 election, pledged “zero tolerance” of corrupt practices, proposed that Zakaïb be suspended from cabinet pending clarification of what happened.
“Imagine the public right now,” Dubé said, adding that while blocking investments might not be illegal, ethically it appears questionable.
Françoise David, of Québec solidaire, called the revelations about Zakaïb “disturbing,” and said her explanations were insufficient, calling for her immediate suspension from cabinet.
Earlier, Stéphane Bédard, PQ government house leader, said the focus by Quebec’s opposition parties on testimony at the Charbonneau Commission is an attempt to divert attention from their own woes. On Wednesday, a second poll indicating PQ gains opened the possibility Marois will call an early election that the poll’s results suggest she could win.
The opposition Liberals and CAQ have suggested 2009 wiretap evidence of Arsen- ault saying he had “a deal” with Claude Blanchet, the husband of Marois, was the reason the PQ delayed it’s call for a public inquiry.
“There never was an agreement,” Bédard said, adding that Marois, now at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, was “very clear” on this point.
When reporters suggested Blanchet explain himself, Bédard said Blanchet was not a PQ candidate and Marois is “the public figure.”
The PQ house leader said in 2009, the PQ opposition was focused on other ethical issues but that from the fall of 2009, the PQ asked “hundreds of questions,” calling for a public inquiry.
Saying there was a delay was “pure fiction.”
In Switzerland on Wednesday, Marois declared that her husband never struck any deal with the FTQ to protect the interests of the union and keep corruption allegations away from public scrutiny.
“There was no deal,” Marois said.
Blanchet ran the FTQ’s Fonds de Solidarité investment fund between 1983 and 1997.
In wiretaps played Tuesday before the Charbonneau Commission, the FTQ’s top official invoked “a deal with Blanchet” and told the kingpin of the union central’s construction wing that he would talk with Marois to head off any inquiry into collusion and corruption in the construction industry.
Marois also said she had not been pressured by the FTQ to dissuade her from endorsing the establishment of what became the commission. Quebec Liberals called the premier’s response unsatisfactory.
In Davos, Marois said Blanchet and the FTQ had “a business relationship.”
But, she added, “there was no agreement, there was no deal like they said,” referring to the contents of the wiretap.
“If they talked with us, and they talked with us regularly, that should not have given the results they expected since we asked for the commission of inquiry and I informed Michel Arsenault quickly enough. It is certain that he didn’t agree but he did not exert pressure,” Marois said.
The Liberals’ Thériault told reporters she was not satisfied with the premier’s response.
“Maybe she didn’t know there was a deal. I will give her the benefit of the doubt. But we are not at all satisfied with her answer,” Thériault said.
She said the wiretap evidence is revealing.
The union chieftains refer to “our friends in the Parti Québécois” and refer to the premier as ‘Pauline,’ ” Thériault said.
The Liberal critic also singled out Arsenault’s “deal with Blanchet” quote.
“Who is running Quebec?” Thériault asked.
“Is it Madame Marois, as premier?
“Is it her husband who runs it and pulls the strings?”
“Is it the FTQ?” she added later, in English.