Questionable expenses at the Montreal Public Consultation Office: Isabelle Beaulieu’s half-truths

As Dominique Ollivier at the start of the weekthe president of the Office de consultation publique de Montréal, Isabelle Beaulieu, multiplied the half-truths during interviews given Wednesday in various media and even went so far as to lie.

The Bureau of Investigation corrects the facts:

• At the microphone of 15-18 on Radio-Canada radio, M^me Beaulieu declared: “There are no dinners in restaurants, there are none, since my presidency, there are no dinners in restaurants.”

This is false. The documents we received show at least 38 charges for dinners or evening food under his presidency.

Isabelle Beaulieu paid six of these bills herself with her City of Montreal credit card, including:

· A meal at the Tiramisu restaurant for $162.80 paid at 8:04 p.m.;

· A dinner at the Hilton Hotel for $198.33 for a “meeting”;

· A meal at Rodos for $170.44 paid at 8:28 p.m.

The former general secretary, Luc Doray, paid 32 of these invoices, including one for a “working dinner” for $124.82 at the Hélicoptère restaurant in Hochelaga. He claims to have gone there with M^me Beaulieu.

In another evening interview, she admitted that there were “a few dinner parties.”

• Always at 15-18, she said about toxic climate claims: “The Office works with a lot of contract employees and there is a large turnover of contract employees and yes, after the pandemic, there are people who have decided to go and work elsewhere.”

Of the 11 departures since the arrival of M^me Beaulieu in February 2022, seven people had employee status, some of whom had nearly 15 years of service. We also have 4 employees.

Several ex-employees confirmed to us that their departure was, at least in part, linked to the new president.

• In an interview with our Bureau of Investigation, she declared: “My predecessor [Dominique Ollivier] told me it was 1% of the annual budget for representation and travel expenses. »

According to travel expense reports and credit card statements, travel and meal expenses often exceed 1% of the OCPM budget.

In 2016, under the presidency of M^me Ollivier, the trips cost nearly $50,000 and the restaurants in Montreal more than $12,000, or more than 3% of the annual budget.

In 2022, under the reign of M^me Beaulieu, these expenses total more than $40,000, or 1.5%.

• Still with our Investigation Office, M^me Beaulieu said: “We are audited by the Auditor General and they are the ones who look at the Office’s accounts.”

Dominique Ollivier also made a similar statement. However, the Office of the Auditor General (VG) confirms that the financial statements of the OCPM have not been audited by the VG since 2017, due to a legislative change.

It is now an external auditor who takes care of it. And again, an accounting auditor does not verify all expenses.

“The financial audit carried out according to auditing standards includes sampling methods according to the planned audit strategy and therefore, it is not 100% of the expenses which are audited,” also clarified the Office of the AG .

• About purchasingAirPods Max headphones at $900,M^me Beaulieu declared on the microphone of Luc Ferrandez from Cogeco: “I arrived, we were still teleworking, so we set up the office so that I could telework and we went to Apple [acheter] headphones and an iPad.”

The headphones were purchased on July 7, 2022. At this time, if M^me Beaulieu was teleworking, but she frequented downtown restaurants near the OCPM offices for “working lunches”. For example, she spent $70.55 at Dunn’s Famous on July 6, $71.08 the following week at East Pan Asiatique or $115.03 at Chez Alexandre restaurant on July 20.

The month of August 2022 is also the month in which she has gone to the restaurant most often since the start of her mandate, around three times a week.

Many office supplies, including a $1,000 chair, were also purchased starting in September.

Furthermore, according to our sources, employees were informed on September 14 that a return to face-to-face four days a week would be required as of September 1.^er october. Teleworking was also ended when M^me Beaulieu purchased, on November 22, his pink iPad Air for $800 as well as his purple iPhone 14 for $1,099 in addition to $300 in AppleCare, not including taxes.