Province refuses to refund $1.2M in infrastructure contracts

‘How can you punish a town that didn’t know what the hell was going on?’

The town of Hudson’s financial situation took another hit recently with word from Quebec’s Municipal Affairs department that it has refused to refund about $1.2 million in funding for a handful of infrastructure contracts handed out several years ago, said Mayor Ed Prévost, adding the contracts date back to the period when a former director general who now faces a number of criminal charges oversaw the projects.

At the start of the council meeting Monday, Prévost informed residents that a Municipal Affairs letter recently sent to Hudson’s new director general, Jean-Pierre Roy, informed the town that it has refused to cover a portion of a total $23-million refund request which dealt with water and sewage projects that were carried out under a previous administration.

“The bottom line is that it’s basically a shortfall of $1.2 million,” Prévost said, adding the town won’t accept the decision, though later acknowledged it faces a daunting task of convincing the province otherwise.

“It’s high stakes,” he continued. “As you know, we had a $1.7 million surprise (a year ago),” he said, alluding to a deficit the town’s new auditors revealed for the 2013 fiscal year instead of the anticipated surplus the town’s previous auditors had initially reported.

Prévost noted these water-sewage contracts were handed out during a period when Louise LégerVillandré was Hudson’s director general. Léger-Villandré currently faces 19 criminal charges, including fraud, breach of trust, and creating and using false documents dating back to 1997. The mayor said the town is sending representatives to attend her next court date set for Nov. 23.

The $1.2 million deemed inadmissible by Quebec for a refund was mainly due to the fact there were no corresponding council resolutions for some bills, the mayor said.

“It’s all related to infrastructure projects,” Prévost said, adding the town paid for this work carried out between 2008-2010 and was seeking to be refunded by Quebec.

“For a little town, $1.2 million is a lot of money,” he said.

“This was all done when the person that was in charge is the person now being criminally accused of a whole bunch of charges,” he said. “Who is to say that some of this is not part of that, like you’ll scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours? We don’t know that.

“How can you punish a town that didn’t know what the hell was going on when (an accused) criminal was committing fraud?” he continued. “(Léger-Villandré) was everything. She was the DG, the treasurer and she was the city clerk.”