(Sherbrooke) Unlike his colleague Simon Jolin-Barrette for the choice of a judge, the Minister of Finance Eric Girard informed the Council of Ministers that he was submitting the name of a “personal friend” to fill a position at Loto -Québec before making his appointment.
In embarrassment after appointing his long-time friend Charles-Olivier Gosselin as a judge at the Court of Quebec, the Minister of Justice defends himself and maintains that he did not have to inform the cabinet of his friendship with him before making the appointment. A minister must however notify his colleagues around the table when he has a personal interest in a company to which the cabinet is about to authorize a subsidy, as recognized by Premier François Legault.
The latter also believes that his minister did not have to tell him that Mr. Gosselin was his friend when he made the appointment to cabinet. He didn’t even know it until Friday. “Every week there are a lot of appointments that are adopted by the Council of Ministers, and then the only question I ask is: were the rules followed? And we are not starting to debate in the Council of Ministers, ”explained Mr. Legault.
Asked during a press scrum to find out if he has already appointed a friend to a position, Eric Girard replied in the affirmative. “Just this week, I renewed the mandate of a personal friend on the board of directors of Loto-Québec,” he replied on the sidelines of the CAQ convention in Sherbrooke. This is Jean-François Blais, former president of Intact insurance, an “extremely competent business leader” who also sits on the board of directors of the Caisse de depot et placement.
On the recommendation of Mr. Girard, the council of ministers of the Legault government had appointed Mr. Blais for the first time in 2019 as a member of the Board of Loto-Québec.
The two men met during their high school studies at the Séminaire Saint-François, a school in the Quebec region.
Eric Girard says he informed the council of ministers of his friendly relationship with Mr. Blais when making the appointment. “I surely said that I knew the person and that she was excellent,” he replied. He also disclosed his friendship with Mr. Blais during the appointment process with the Secretariat for Senior Employment – which reports to the Executive Council, the Prime Minister’s department. “It was said that I knew him when it was done,” said Mr. Girard.
And why did his colleague Simon Jolin-Barrette not divulge the information when Judge Gosselin was appointed? The Minister of Finance did not want to come forward. “I won’t comment on that. […]. The judges, it is never discussed. The process for appointing judges is very different from the process for appointing board members. »