A contract with Beauregard Environnement, this company blacklisted in Montreal due to spills of contaminated sludge, was awarded Tuesday evening in Laval to clean sewer sumps. The Boyer administration reiterates that it has no choice but to proceed in this way, but the opposition accuses it of having “lost control in this file”.
“The development of this case is surprising and particularly worrying. It is really a flagrant lack of seriousness and I consider that the administration has lost control in this file, ”denounced Wednesday the municipal councilor of Saint-François and member of the Action Laval party, Isabelle Piché.
The City had initially removed the grant from the agenda, during a meeting of the municipal council. On Tuesday evening, the Boyer administration nevertheless finally awarded a $750,000 contract to Beauregard Environnement. The City claims to have been “forced” to do so, the company having won the tender as the lowest compliant bidder.
Mayor Stéphane Boyer lamented Tuesday in The Press unable to prevent the company banned in the metropolis from doing business at home, demanding a change in the law to unify the blacklists of cities. His administration is specifically asking Quebec to change the Public Bodies Contracts Actwhich stipulates that only the Autorité des marchés publics (AMP) can place a business on the Register of Non-Eligible Businesses (RENA), which applies in all municipalities.
According to the City, such a change would be major since it currently states that it cannot refuse to award the contract, despite the fact that Beauregard Environnement is on the municipal “black list” of Montreal for having dumped sludge contaminated on agricultural land.
“Issues of Trust”
For the interim leader of the Parti Laval and municipal councilor of Fabreville, Claude Larochelle, “Mayor Boyer orchestrated everything at the last minute so as not to lose face, but it seems to me that actions should have been taken months ago” . “My colleague and I expressed our dissent yesterday. We felt a real discomfort with the fact of being placed in front of the accomplished fact, ”he hammered on Wednesday.
For Isabelle Piché too, the confusion remains. “The mayor defends himself behind his legal obligation […] but what we don’t understand is how come this company can still submit bids? […] How is it that the mayor is in reaction mode, but does not take any concrete action? she asks.
This file, she says, “raises questions of confidence about the seriousness with which this task is truly assumed by the current members of the executive committee”.
The cabinet of the President of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, cautiously argued on Tuesday that Laval is primarily responsible for monitoring the contracts it awards, with the Laval-Terrebonne Office of Integrity and Ethics ( BIELT). For the rest, argues Quebec, we must let the AMP do its job.
Misunderstanding, according to Boyer
In a statement, Mayor Boyer retorted Wednesday that the reaction of the oppositions “is not very edifying”. “It shows us that they do not understand the rules in force. […] For Ville de Laval to add a business to its own blacklist, it must have committed a fault on Laval territory. We have already done this with other companies in the past,” he says.
“The request we made to the government is unprecedented,” persisted Mr. Boyer, arguing, however, that such legislative changes “do not happen on the corner of a table” and take time.
At the Council of Environmental Technology Companies of Quebec (CETEQ), Director General Kevin Morin supports Mr. Boyer in his efforts to obtain legislative changes in Quebec. “Currently, cities and different levels of government are working in silos, but ultimately, the lack of consistency between different actions creates loopholes in the system that are exploited by ill-intentioned companies,” he said. he argues.