Evidence of meeting #42 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 40th Parliament, 3rd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was sauvé.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Gilles Prud'homme
I can't speak for other people. I am only telling you what happened to me. I didn't wait around to see what was happening. I had no political objective that evening. I had accepted the invitation from the Italian barber.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
It's really interesting to understand how Liberal Party membership cards are sold in Bourassa. That might be repeated elsewhere in other ridings. We understand why the member for Bourassa is the champion membership card seller in Quebec.
Let's get back to the famous cocktail party. You met Mr. Sauvé. He agreed to sell membership cards for you.
Gilles Prud'homme
He even offered to participate. Initially, he told me he was prepared to sell 10 or so cards. He sold more, ultimately. I don't have the details for the number of tickets he and Mr. Padulo sold.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
Generally speaking, how did the event go?
Gilles Prud'homme
It went very well. The Minister arrived late. He stayed only 90 minutes. When he arrived, we were warned that he would have to leave quickly. His father was ill. He wanted to get to Thetford Mines or in that vicinity to see him. He went around talking to the people there. He had a little bite before leaving, and he went.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
There was no mandatory membership card.
Gilles Prud'homme
No. The people there paid by cheque. There were people from the family of the candidate, Ms. Allaire, and Mr. Padulo's family, and people from other Conservative riding associations near Ahuntsic and the restaurant. There were a few journalists from Italian weeklies.
In any event, the cocktail party was held in the light of day. Rodger Brulotte had talked about it in one of his columns. It wasn't hidden. If you look up Rodger Brulotte's column, you can see the photograph of the Minister with Ms. Allaire and Mr. Padulo. That's clear.
In fact, it gave the MP for Bourassa a chance to tell certain members, in front of the Italian community, to be sure not to be seen there because it wasn't good for their image with the Liberal Party.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
Did people eat spaghetti, like at other activities?
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
This is a good restaurant in Montreal.
Gilles Prud'homme
It's a family restaurant, but the restaurant wasn't open that evening. On Mondays, generally, it isn't open. They opened it for the event and they prepared a buffet for the occasion.
December 7th, 2010 / 9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Gilles Prud'homme
It was paid for. It's written in the association's report. The report talks about the Da Enrico restaurant and a figure of $3,000.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
All the work you did from 2007 to 2010 is well documented and all the reports have been audited by Elections Canada.
Gilles Prud'homme
Yes, they are all done by Roger Guindon, who is very highly regarded by Elections Canada and is very meticulous. He is always asking us to turn our documents in. So there is no problem.
We worked hard. The candidate handed out nearly 18,000 professional cards, hand to hand, in the riding. We bought advertising in the Italian weeklies every week for a year. We bought advertising in Le Guide Montréal-Nord and L'Informateur de Rivière-des-Prairies. We attended various activities. We did what we could.
Unfortunately, the situation in 2008, with the questions about culture and the fact that we couldn't get a minister to come during the campaign, hurt us. We still got the result we could. We had good numbers in the circumstances.
That's it.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
The moral of the story is that to win Bourassa riding, you have to organize a big spaghetti dinner, invite people and hope they work for you.
Liberal
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Prud'Homme.
We're getting an interesting insight into the rather dark world of the blood sport of Montreal politics, but we're more interested in the even darker world of allegations of collusion and price-fixing and bid-rigging in the construction industry as it pertains to these very buildings.
Mr. Sauvé painted us a picture. He indicated to us that, on average, to get a contract for either Transports Québec or the federal government requires a 3% to 5% kickback. Would that be in the right sort of ballpark range?
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
You have no knowledge of that? Well, the bribes at the front end and the kickbacks at the back end are what we're concerned about. If a person like Varin were shaking down a contractor for bribes, if you wanted to bribe your way onto a bidders list, for instance, who would Mr. Varin pay out in order to get that kind of a contract for his client?
As an Individual
I don't know, because I don't know anyone here in Ottawa.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
No, but let's say for Transports Québec, who would you bribe in Transports Québec?
