Denis Coderre advised Transcontinental on Montreal issues until his return to politics, the company confirmed in a statement to Press, Wednesday. The printer is therefore the company whose name remained confidential until now.
The former mayor worked for Transcontinental “between July 2019 and March 2020, then between November 2020 and March 2021,” she says.
According to our information, its mandate was linked to Publisac, the plastic bag filled with circulars published by the company, and whose distribution the City of Montreal wanted to limit because it is too difficult to recycle.
“At the request of Denis Coderre and in the public interest, TC Transcontinental is lifting its confidentiality agreement and confirms that it has retained the services of Denis Coderre for strategic advice regarding the circular economy and the company’s recycling investments in the east of Montreal, indicates in an email the vice-president of communications of the company, François Taschereau. The company will not comment further on this matter. ”
According to a source familiar with the matter, Denis Coderre notably advised Transcontinental within the framework of the public consultation on the control of circulars. This source asked to remain anonymous because of a confidentiality agreement.
Wednesday evening, Denis Coderre defended his activity as a consultant, on the sidelines of a highly charged militant rally. He added that he would withdraw from any decision in which he was in a conflict of interest.
“When the time comes, I’ll definitely talk to the ethics counselor,” Coderre said. “With COGIR, if there are issues affecting Montreal, I will withdraw. That’s for sure. […] For the question of Transcontinental, listen, this is a file that we will look at with the advisor [en éthique]. Mr. Coderre assured that his political positions had “absolutely nothing to do” with the identity of his clients.
To a question asking him to reveal a copy of his official income tax return, rather than a summary table as he did on Wednesday, the former mayor opposed an end of inadmissibility. “We’re going to stop there,” he said. That’s enough. ”
Influence campaign
Transcontinental has been trying since 2019 to influence the City of Montreal to prevent it from passing new municipal regulations aimed at establishing an “opt-in” system for Publisac, according to the Registry of Lobbyists.
By virtue of such a principle, anyone who would like to receive the publication would have to register on a list for this purpose. Otherwise, residents would not receive it.
Currently, Transcontinental has the Publisac distributed to all residents who have not affixed the sticker provided by the company to those who do not want to see it at their door.
The Plante administration has not made a final decision on this matter, publicly acknowledging the importance of these bags to the local newspapers distributed there.
Other mandates in the Registry of Lobbyists on behalf of Transcontinental aim to “guide public policies” in particular “to improve the current recycling of bales of residual plastics from sorting centers”.
Numerous lobbyists from National and Ryan Public Affairs, as well as company executives, have registered for these mandates.
Denis Coderre hinted that he had not had a mandate on the Publisac. Transcontinental says, however, that its advice touched on “recycling”. However, the difficulty of properly sorting its product – paper that must be removed from its plastic bag – is precisely at the heart of the City’s proposals to tighten up its distribution.
According to our source and all the mandates published on the Registry of Lobbyists, the two files are closely linked.
Increasing pressure
For four days, Mr. Coderre had been bombarded with questions about the identity of clients who paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars during the period he became a consultant in the private sector, between 2017 and 2021.
On Monday, he argued that several of these contracts were confidential. On Tuesday, he explained that he would disclose his entire client list to the City of Montreal’s ethics counselor, once elected, in order to avoid conflicts of interest.
Press revealed Wednesday morning that the candidate for mayor had been paid by the real estate giant COGIR between 2019 and March 2021. The big boss of the company indicated that he had entrusted a mandate of “international development” to the ex-mayor and that the contract was not covered by a confidentiality clause, an argument that Mr. Coderre used to refuse to reveal his cards.
On Wednesday noon, Mr. Coderre’s campaign released a list of its clients, including COGIR and Parc Oméga, an Outaouais zoo owned by COGIR owners.
One of his clients – a “Quebec company”, according to the document – remained unknown, however. On Wednesday evening, Transcontinental confirmed to be this mystery shopper.
“Projet Montréal tries to taint my integrity in order to distract voters from the real issues on which they will vote: the dismal state of public finances, the growing insecurity in our streets, the congestion that affects thousands of people every day, and so many others ”, underlined Mr. Coderre, in the middle of the day, in a press release. “We must not take our eyes off the real issues of this election. ”
“In panic mode”, judge Plante
The outgoing mayor, Valérie Plante, devoted a large part of her press conference to Denis Coderre, Wednesday afternoon, judging that the latter is “clearly in panic mode” four days before the municipal elections.
In 2017, he blamed the media for asking him questions about Formula E. There, now, it’s me who is not nice. It’s a campaign. And Mr. Coderre is well aware that he is losing momentum.
Valérie Plante, outgoing mayor of Montreal
Mme Plante also suggested that his opponent’s links with the giant COGIR discredit him to talk about densification housing. “Is he there for promoters or for Montrealers?” “, She blurted out, accusing the leader of Ensemble Montreal of wanting to” step back “in terms of housing, with its” 15-15 “regulation which would supplant the” 20-20-20 “.
“These data were provided on a piece of paper. It was done at the end of a table, ”also lamented the head of Projet Montreal.
Ultimately arguing that “transparency is not an extensible value”, Valérie Plante says generally that “several Montrealers who said to themselves that Denis Coderre has changed” are “today disappointed” and no longer want to replay “in the same film ”. “We are three days away from the vote, and Ensemble Montréal has still not tabled its financial framework. What are they hiding? Me, I’ve never seen that, ”concluded the mayor on this subject.