Investissement Québec (IQ) has taken refuge behind legal provisions to refuse to disclose the names of the ten companies that have received financial assistance of $ 68 million thanks to the discretionary power of the Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon.
The Office of Compliance, Ombudsman and Governance argued that releasing this information would violate the Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies.
“It turns out that we cannot give you the documents” replied Principal Director Danielle Vivier, in a letter to Duty dated December 9.
The access to information request of the Duty aimed to obtain the documents making it possible to know the companies for which Mr. Fitzgibbon has adjusted the terms of the Temporary Concerted Action Program for Companies (PACTE) so that they benefit from this financial assistance. The request also referred to the analyzes prior to these decisions by the Minister.
Ms. Vivier invoked eight articles of the law to justify its end of inadmissibility. Among these, some authorize public bodies like IQ, a crown corporation, to refuse to disclose information which would reveal a loan, a trade secret, personal information or which could harm a negotiation.
Auditor General Guylaine Leclerc tabled a report two weeks ago questioning Mr. Fitzgibbon’s discretion in the problematic allocation of loans or loan guarantees to ten companies.
Ms. Leclerc noted a lack of transparency regarding these companies, which benefited from a relaxation of the PACTE rules, although this possibility had not been disclosed when the eligibility criteria were made public.
More details to come
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