The Permanent Anti-Corruption Unit (UPAC) has opened an investigation into the Center de services scolaire (CSS) Marie-Victorin, has learned The duty. At the heart of it is an executive who was fired last month after mobilizing blue-collar workers to work on one of his buildings. This executive is also involved in a real estate group alongside a former general manager of the CSS, who resigned for a possible conflict of interest.
“We have investigative operations that affect the Center de services scolaire Marie-Victorin,” confirmed Wednesday to the Duty UPAC spokesman Mathieu Galarneau, however refraining from any “comment” on this case.
In 2019, Alexandre Lobry was hired as manager responsible for development and construction at the Material Resources Department of CSS Marie-Victorin, on the South Shore of Montreal. The administrator, who is also a building manager, then began to have unionized employees work on his own account in one of his residential buildings, according to several education sources consulted by The duty.
“It has happened before, indeed,” confirms Mr. Lobry, who was dismissed from his post last month. “I have been criticized for having done things from an ethical point of view,” notes the entrepreneur, who claims to have only mobilized blue-collar workers from the CSS Marie-Victorin outside of their working hours. “An employee would never have worked in my building at public expense,” he underlines, adding that he was not met by UPAC investigators.
“It was a number company that I have 50% with another friend. It’s in there [que des cols bleus] came to work a few years ago, in a building that I don’t even own anymore,” says Lobry.
Since then, several blue-collar workers who were under the direction of Mr. Lobry have been met by UPAC and some have left their posts, according to our information. The director general of CSS Marie-Victorin, Ghislain Plourde, meanwhile resigned on May 9, less than a year after being appointed to this position. The manager was first suspended in mid-November by the CSS due to potential conflicts of interest.
The conclusions of the investigation carried out over several months by an independent firm mandated by the CSS Marie-Victorin and relating to Mr. Plourde have not been disclosed, the former director general having left his functions while this process was in progress. .
By e-mail, the assistant director of communications of the CSS, Gabriel Dupuis, assures that the investigation commissioned by the school service center “did not reveal that Mr. Plourde would have obtained personal advantages or committed fraud or embezzlement in connection with a situation of potential conflicts of interest”.
A real estate group
The duty however, learned that Ghislain Plourde is one of the investors in Groupe immobilier Sept inc., a property management company chaired by Alexandre Lobry. “He’s a friend of mine, indeed,” says the second about the first.
Alexandre Lobry ensures that this company has never obtained contracts from CSS Marie-Victorin. However, among the seven investors in the real estate group, “there is one who had a contract with the school service center,” says the 47-year-old entrepreneur. According to our sources, the investor in question is part of a company specializing in demolition which still has active contracts with the CSS Marie-Victorin.
Three agents from the Sûreté du Québec are also among the investors in this real estate group, which has acquired two buildings in the Montreal region in recent years. “The police are friends,” says Mr. Lobry.
The participation of Ghislain Plourde in this real estate group would thus be at the heart of the conflict of interest for which he is accused, according to our information. “I don’t see anything else, actually,” says Mr. Lobry.
However, the UPAC investigation would not target Ghislain Plourde, who did not respond to our numerous interview requests. “According to the information we have, UPAC’s intervention has no connection with the administrative investigation concerning the director general, which focused on a situation of potential conflicts of interest”, indicates Gabriel Dupuis, of the CSS Marie-Victorin.
More “transparency” demanded
Plourde had replaced Marie-Dominique Taillon as general manager of CSS Marie-Victorin, after her departure from this position on March 25, 2022. Mme Taillon, who is also a friend of Alexandre Lobry, currently holds the position of Assistant Deputy Minister for Academic Excellence and Pedagogy within the Ministry of Education.
During a popular monthly session of the CSS board of directors on Tuesday evening, several people came to the microphone to demand more “transparency” in the process of selecting the next director general.
“I was no longer present or employed by the CSS at the time of the procedures for the appointment of my successor”, for his part wrote to the Duty Mme Taillon, who recalls that it is “the board of directors which determines the process and which proceeds to the appointment of a general manager”.
The CSS Marie-Victorin ensures for its part that the recruitment of the previous director general “was carried out according to a structured approach, with the support and according to the recommendations of an external firm”. A call for internal and external candidates is also planned for the search for Mr. Plourde’s successor, assures Gabriel Dupuis.
Joined by The duty, the office of the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, confirmed having been informed of the holding of an investigation by the UPAC at the CSS Marie-Victorin. However, he was stingy with comments “since the police investigation is still ongoing”.