Six months after obtaining 2 million in damages from Montreal, a snow removal contractor is back with a new lawsuit in which he accuses the City of treating the industry of which he is a part “like rats”.
What there is to know
- Dissatisfied with the prices submitted for certain snow removal territories, Montreal awarded contracts to its blue-collar workers this winter.
- One of the shunned contractors is now suing the city for $5 million. He already obtained 2 million in a similar case a few months ago.
- The snow removal industry is leading a plethora of lawsuits against the City of Montreal, with which relations are extremely tense.
It’s another battle in a long-running war between snow removal companies and City Hall, with claims totaling tens of millions in court.
Building on his victory last year, businessman John Tooke is now demanding 5 million after seeing the City cancel a snow removal contract for several dozen streets in Rosemont that he was about to win. Instead, she outsourced the work to her blue-collar workers – and other contractors – to avoid “getting screwed” with greedy bids.
“City of Montreal officials are acting to destroy the integrity of the call for tenders process,” deplores his company, Déneigement Proquip, in its lawsuit. It was filed last week at the Montreal courthouse. The document accuses the City of being “an ethically and morally failing business partner.”
The lawsuit describes several occasions where the City of Montreal saw fit to intervene in calls for tenders related to snow removal.
“If the system is not repaired quickly, it will quickly collapse. We have tried in recent years to contact the City, to find solutions in the interest of Montrealers, but there is nothing to be done,” commented Mr. Tooke’s lawyer, Mr.e Yacine Agnaou, indicating that companies were losing patience and deserting. “This is a situation where they need to intervene very, very quickly, before there are consequences. »
Mr Agnaou represented a company of Mr Tooke when he won 2 million in damages for another canceled contract. The City of Montreal “is neither transparent nor fair, and bargains over its contracts,” concluded the Superior Court in a decision upheld on appeal.
Montreal and the Plante administration did not want to comment on the filing of the lawsuit, “considering the judicialization of the case”.
“We won’t let ourselves be fooled”
The case at the center of the new lawsuit dates back to the summer. Dissatisfied with the prices submitted by the private sector for a snow removal area in Rosemont and another in the city center, the Plante administration preferred to entrust the task to its blue-collar workers. It also expanded contracts linked to neighboring territories.
“We really want to send a signal to the market that we will not accept any exaggerated price,” said the elected official responsible for the file, Maja Vodanovic, in a telephone interview with The Press. “It’s really a message that we won’t let ourselves be fooled. »
Proquip had submitted the best bid for the contract in Rosemont. Its cancellation represents “an unprecedented attack on the integrity of the public tender process,” the company argues in its suit.
She is seeking 3 million to compensate for lost profits and 2 million in punitive damages.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
John Tooke
“Since the centralization of snow removal operations in 2016, municipal authorities have treated the public tender process as a form of strategic tool,” John Tooke argued Thursday in an email to The Press. “This led to almost [50 millions] of dollars from lawsuits filed by snow removal contractors against the City of Montreal. »
War or almost
Mr. Tooke is far from the only snow removal contractor to sue the City.
The businessman “says out loud what the majority of the industry thinks quietly,” argued Jason Imbeault, of the Association of Snow Removal Contractors of Quebec (AEDQ).
The war between the City and the industry, “if it has not yet started, it is not far away,” explained Mr. Imbeault, who supports the lawsuit undertaken by Mr. Tooke. “It’s very difficult to make our points of view heard. »
The lawsuit argues that if snow removal prices are high in Montreal, it is not because contractors are greedy, but rather because they include “compensation for accepting to be treated like rats.”
Jason Imbeault is also director of snow removal at CMS Entrepreneurs Généraux, which lost the contract in Ville-Marie when Montreal decided to entrust it to its blue-collar workers. He said his company was still considering whether to take the matter to court.
With the collaboration of Louis-Samuel Perron, The Press