One would wonder if it was a commission. I guess we cannot really say that it might be a commission or a cut, but boy, I will say it looks like dollars for dollars.
On February 29, 2000, leap year day just a couple of months ago, the opposition revealed that Mr. Fugère also lobbied for the Scierie Opitciwan sawmill on a reserve in Quebec in the riding of Champlain, next door to the riding of Saint-Maurice. Does the hon. member remember the old quote? I am not sure he was here when I was reading the quote of the Prime Minister before the election in 1993, so I will make sure I share that with him because it is incredibly relevant to the Scierie Opitciwan reserve.
On October 15, 1993, just a few days before the election, the Prime Minister reminded the people in a public appearance that he would have enormous clout as Prime Minister to pull government strings. He said, “When a dossier for Saint-Maurice, anything out of that riding, lands on a cabinet minister's desk, basically I will be there to look out for you”.
It looks like that is exactly what happened with the Opitciwan sawmill on the reserve in Quebec. The sawmill received in 1998 $300,000 from TJF, a $1.8 million loan from Canada economic development for Quebec regions and a $200,000 subsidy from the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. Not bad.
Let us do a little tracking of the donations to the Prime Minister's 1997 campaign. Exactly one-third, 33% of the donations to the Prime Minister's personal election campaign can be linked to grants, contributions and contracts in his riding. There would be people who could make all kinds of claims that this is a terrible thing for us to do and we should not be connecting these things one to another, but these are the facts and these are the dollars.
Aérospatiale Globax Inc. gave $4,000 to the campaign and got $2 million in TJF grants. Les Confections St-Élie gave $1,500 to the Prime Minister's personal election campaign and got two TJF grants totalling $285,108. Megatech Electro gave $400. That is not very good because it got a $1.3 million TJF grant. It hardly makes it all worthwhile. The Liberals did all the paperwork for the grant and they got $400 back for their campaign. It is not a very good percentage.
Here is a better one. Transelec gave a single cheque of $10,000 to the Prime Minister's personal election campaign. It received a CIDA contract. There was $1.19 million to Globax subsidiary Placeteco acquired by the owner of Transelec.
Les Industries Fermco gave $2,000 to the Prime Minister and received a TJF grant of $200,000. That is getting a little better percentage. It gets $200,000 and gives $2,000 back; I mean it made a donation of $2,000.
Cirtech gave $4,000 to the Prime Minister's campaign. It is owned by Claude Bellerive who received a $45,000 TJF grant in the Prime Minister's riding for Salle de Quilles Biermans. Les Consultants Mesar gave $1,000 to the Prime Minister and received HRD grants in the Prime Minister's riding worth $13,000. That is a pretty good percentage too. That is a fair chunk of change.
Stone Consolidated gave $5,000 to the Prime Minister's campaign. The Prime Minister was a former director of this corporation which received HRD grants of $13,000 in the Prime Minister's riding. It gave $5,000 back as a campaign donation.
Muniressources gave $2,000. Shawinigan International Inc. received $46,305 from Canada economic development for Quebec regions. Muniressources is a co-founding company of Shawinigan International. Is it not handy the way they are all kind of warm and intimately linked.
Then there is Abatoir A.L. Bellerive Inc. which gave $500. It received a CIDA contract worth $117,400 even while the RCMP were investigating its involvement in a $1.4 million tax fraud. But it can still give the money over. That totals $30,400. That is 30% of total personal and business donations of $90,325. That is a fair chunk of change to come up with in someone's personal election campaign. That was not even donated to the party. That was just to the Prime Minister's personal campaign.
There is another one we cannot forget about, the great water fountain in Shawinigan. Canadians have heard about that. A few questions have been asked in question period about it. This is pretty hard to believe.
On February 8, 2000 Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec which is the federal regional development agency for Quebec, announced a $200,000 non-repayable contribution to build a lighted fountain in the Saint-Maurice River in the Prime Minister's riding. A non-profit group called Heritage Shawinigan is heading the project.
Here are some facts about the actual application. On March 31, 1998 the office of the minister for the economic development agency received a file from the Prime Minister's office. A note says, “The file was sent by Denise Tremblay of the Prime Minister's office”. In other words, “Hint, hint, look out, this comes straight from someone important in the PMO, tick, check, pay attention to it”. I bet there was a red flag on it.
On May 5, 1998 a letter from the EDA for Quebec regions indicated that the formal application for funding from Heritage Shawinigan was received on May 4, over a month after the Prime Minister's office sent the file to the EDA for Quebec regions. The file had already been in process for two weeks when the application was received. Might as well get a jump on it. Might as well move ahead a little bit, get a bit of a jump on it. It is so awkward when they have to wait for the application form to come in. They might just as well get the ball rolling.
Another note further explains, “The file was submitted by the office of the Prime Minister and sent to us for analysis on April 18, 1998”. This suggests that the Prime Minister actually initiated the grant process prior to an application from the project's sponsor. The timing on this is unbelievable. That same note dated May 28 recommends that the project be approved. The internal approval process took just over three weeks. That is faster than greased lightning around this place. It is just unbelievable. All of a sudden the thing is through. The project was approved by letter to Heritage Shawinigan dated July 6, 1998.
Les Consultants Mesar undertook a feasibility study on the proposal for which Heritage Shawinigan paid it $8,000; $5,000 of this amount was received from the Department of Canadian Heritage. Les Consultants Mesar donated a total of $1,000 in three separate gifts to the Prime Minister's personal election campaign in 1997. It is just so easy to say, “Here's to you. Thanks very much”.
The project was supposed to have been completed by September 1, 1998 but the announcement was delayed until February 8, 2000, at a time of controversy surrounding grants and contributions. No reason was given for the delay. In other words, “Oh, oh, it is getting a little close to home here. Those troublesome opposition members of parliament are asking questions about these things so we had better lie low for a while”.
Under the terms and conditions of the agreement signed and accepted by the sponsor dated August 3, 1998, the client had to begin the project on September 1, 1998 and finish it no later than September 1, 1999. The announcement for the funding came five months after the project was supposed to have been completed. It had to go underground for a little bit, or under water let us say. By the time the thing was supposed to be finished, the announcement did not even come until five months later. It still has not happened. The project will be 80% funded by government. Imagine, such a worthwhile deal and it is 80% government funded.