Cost to clean up Contrecoeur land pulled from thin air
Witness says expert blurted out figure under pressure from construction boss
When city-owned land known as Faubourg Contrecoeur was sold to a construction firm for a fraction of its evaluation in 2007, the price was based in large part on a high cost estimate to decontaminate the site so that it could be developed for housing.
And on Thursday, the fraud trial of former city executive committee chairman Frank Zampino, former construction firm president Paolo Catania and four former executives of Catania’s firm, all of whom are charged in connection with the sale of the Contrecoeur land in east end Montreal, heard a witness’s version of how an environmental
But maybe he was in shock. ... (Maybe Marcotte was) caught up in the game.
expert established the $11-million estimate for the decontamination.
The expert blurted it out when pressed by Catania to come up with a figure on the spot during a meeting, the witness, René Séguin, told the court.
“That’s where the $11 million started,” said Séguin, who founded the engineering consulting firm Groupe Séguin in 1980.
It was Groupe Séguin, now called Génius Conseil, that was contracted by the city’s real estate agency, Société d’habitation et de développement de Montréal (SHDM), to produce studies and a business plan to prepare the sale of the land for the development of 1,800 units of housing.
Groupe Séguin turned around and subcontracted much of the work, including the environmental studies, to other firms, the court heard this week.
The research to establish the decontamination cost was subcontracted to LVM Technisol, a subsidiary of Dessau engineering. Claude Marcotte of LVM Technisol came up with the $11-million figure, Séguin testified on Thursday.
Marcotte had presented a study on the decontamination costs, but he warned that its results were preliminary, Séguin said. He added that Marcotte warned a more detailed study, which would cost $250,000 and take a few months to complete, was needed.
But Séguin said he and Marcotte — whom Séguin described as “two innocents” — were unaware that some people wanted to move ahead as fast as possible and have Catania’s firm, Construction Frank Catania et Associés Inc., develop the housing project as a public-private partnership.
Séguin said he and Marcotte attended a meeting with Daniel Gauthier, an urban planner who was subcontracted to produce the business plan for the site’s development, and Catania, whose firm had been brought in early on as an expert in construction.
Catania told Marcotte, “Tell me a figure, we won’t go over,” Séguin testified as the accused sat in the courtroom.
Marcotte put out the figure of $11 million, Séguin testified.
“But maybe he was in shock,” he said of Marcotte.
Marcotte “made an error,” Séguin said, but added that he wanted to protect Marcotte because he’s a professional whose expertise is recognized by the Quebec Environment Department.
Maybe Marcotte was “caught up in the game,” Séguin told the court.
Marcotte is on the Crown’s list of witnesses. He hasn’t been charged.
Before Séguin’s appearance, Isabelle Thibault, an engineer from Génius Conseil (Groupe Séguin) who was a junior engineer straight out of school when she worked with Séguin on the estimates for the Contrecoeur project in 2006, testified this week that she was told by then- Groupe Séguin president Michel Lalonde to work with representatives of Construction Frank Catania et Associés to vet the project costs since the firm was an expert in development.
Later, when the SHDM issued a call for proposals to sell the land, the Catania construction firm won the bid. The firm wound up paying the city $4.4 million for the Contrecoeur site because $14.6 million was discounted for decontamination and some mitigation measures from the $19-million price.
The land’s municipal assessment was $31 million.
Séguin is to continue testifying on Tuesday. He has yet to be crossexamined by the defence.
Also on Thursday, a hearing to set a trial date for former Union Montreal party fundraiser Bernard Trépanier, who is also charged in the Contrecoeur case, was postponed till June.
Trépanier, who has cancer, is awaiting tests to see if he can undergo more treatments, his lawyer, Daniel Rock, told the court.