The Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) has redacted numerous information on its expenses and still refuses to this day to provide invoices for restaurant meals and travel for its executives.
A large part of our revelations in recent days on expenses at the OCPM would not have been possible with only the documents provided by the organization as they are succinct and redacted: oyster dinner for $347 in Paris, numerous outings At Alexandre’s, expenses during personal trips, etc.
In recent months, our Investigation Office has made several requests to the OCPM under the Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies.
Each time, it was the general secretary, Guy Grenier, who handled our requests, including when it concerned his own expense accounts, travel or contracts.
Missing invoices
To this day, Mr. Grenier has not provided us with any travel invoices (hotels, plane tickets, meal invoices) under the pretext that they are personal information. Only expense tables were sent to us.
We were still able to find out a few details thanks to credit card statements obtained from the City of Montreal, in particular that former Secretary General Luc Doray had spent money in Brazil during a vacation.
Invoices could have allowed us to answer several questions, for example whether members of M’s familyme Ollivier or Mr. Grenier were present during meals paid for by taxpayers.
The Office also failed to send us several restaurant receipts which were nevertheless found in the credit card statements of Guy Grenier and Isabelle Beaulieu.
“If I am responsible for responding to requests for access to information and a request concerns me, I must withdraw from this process,” believes the professor of ethics at UQAM, Michel Séguin.
Up to $4,000 worth of electronic equipment also remains unexplained, because no invoice was provided to us.
What are they eating?
Some documents provided by the OCPM were also extremely redacted.
On the vast majority of meeting expense forms and restaurant receipts, it is impossible to read the name of the establishment, the names of the guests or even the purpose of the meeting. It is also impossible to know if alcohol was served.
OCPM
According to Michel Séguin, the names of the people met are not confidential information.
The expert believes that this redaction and the fact that Mr. Grenier responds to the requests himself “creates doubt about the credibility of the activities and creates ricochet doubt about the credibility of the organization”.
It was only thanks to credit card statements that we were able to learn that the leaders of the OCPM regularly frequented the restaurant Chez Alexandre.
Mr. Grenier even went so far as to almost entirely redact an official mission report. By insisting, however, he changed his mind.
A report from an official mission to France in December 2022 was given to us almost entirely redacted. The Office subsequently changed its mind and provided the full report.
Public consultation office
The reports we thus obtained demonstrate to what extent they are summary, even sloppy.
“Shocked” by our requests
Before being appointed secretary general of the OCPM in 2022, Guy Grenier was a “collaborator” for several years.
He refused to send us the contracts that bind him to the OCPM since 2014, when he was recruited by his former business partner, Dominique Ollivier.
He deemed our request abusive.
We also asked if his spouse had had contracts with the Office, since she was a co-shareholder in his consulting firm.
Mr. Grenier quickly contacted us by phone saying he was “shocked” to read his wife’s name in our request.
“Obviously, there is nothing to answer […] I don’t understand what this is leading you to. I feel like it’s becoming harassment,” he said.
The president of the OCPM, Isabelle Beaulieu, and the secretary general, Guy Grenier.
Photo taken from the OCPM Facebook page
The president of the OCPM, Isabelle Beaulieu, and the secretary general, Guy Grenier, refused all our requests for interviews and never responded to our questions sent by email. Here are a few:
- Why did you go to Chez Alexandre for a management meeting which cost $245 for two people? Is there alcohol in your meetings?
- Why did you buy $900 wireless headphones? Why didn’t you provide us with the invoice for this purchase?
- Why during a stay in Argentina did you charge two transactions totaling $993.10 at the Marriott in Panama City?
- What are the policies governing meeting and travel expenses?
Photo Agence QMI, Mario Beauregard
The president of the executive committee, Dominique Ollivier, for his part granted us an interview, but she and her team dodged some of our questions:
On a Paris-Lyon round trip train costing more than $1,000 for Mme Ollivier and Mr. Grenier. Would it be possible to confirm if the tickets were business class?
The amount of these trips represents four trips. All trips were made in compliance with OCPM standards, always in economy class, except when this was impossible for reasons of space availability or travel schedule.
Would it be possible to confirm to us if for the flight of Mme Ollivier at $1600 for Paris in fall 2016 was in business class?
At all times, Dominique Ollivier respected all the rules inherent to the Office, including travel expenses.
Regarding the $347 oyster dinner, was Mr. Grenier’s son at the restaurant that day?
No answer
What were the OCPM standards for travel and meal expenses like?
You will have to get this information from the OCPM. [NDLR, à noter que nous n’avons reçu aucun document à ce jour.]