MONTREAL -- A former Montreal municipal-party fundraiser, referred to locally as "Mr. Three Per Cent," has admitted that he might have gotten inside information about upcoming engineering contracts from a senior city official and then transferred it to certain firms.
But Bernard Trepanier downplayed the significance of that information. He said he only supplied engineering companies with a heads-up about contracts that were coming and the results of meetings where city officials decided who got those contracts.
Inquiry investigators are suggesting that the party official acted as an intermediary between city officials and the engineering firms, and that he trafficked in privileged information.
Phone records show countless calls with the city's public works director and with Michel Lalonde, the head of an engineering company who has admitted to leading an industry cartel.
Trepanier insisted, while testifying at Quebec's corruption inquiry Thursday, that he never knew how much the contracts were worth and wasn't involved in determining who won. He said his information came from the city's then-director of public works, Robert Marcil.
Asked if it was privileged information, Trepanier admitted it was possible.
"Maybe," Trepanier said.
"It was an advantage that I had, knowing in advance."
He admitted that such information went exclusively to those companies that donated to the party in power -- Trepanier's Union Montreal. The party no longer holds office and has been disintegrating into different factions since the resignation of Gerald Tremblay as mayor last fall.
Testifying for a third day before the corruption inquiry, Trepanier continued to deny allegations that he collected a cut of public contracts worth three per cent -- which is how his nickname was coined in Quebec media.
Trepanier, a 74-year-old retired former federal Progressive Conservative aide turned municipal political organizer, says all he did for the party was sell tickets to fundraising events.
Earlier Thursday, a communications executive denied a claim that he billed SNC-Lavalin for work he actually did for Union Montreal during the 2005 election.
Andre Morrow, the spouse of former federal Liberal cabinet minister Liza Frulla, trumpeted his ties with various provincial and federal Liberal governments.
Yves Cadotte, an engineering executive with SNC-Lavalin, had said during his own time on the stand that he paid a fake bill from Morrow worth $75,000 as part of $200,000 destined for Union Montreal.
Morrow, head of Morrow Communications, flatly denied the claim, saying the $75,000 was a retainer fee paid by SNC-Lavalin, negotiated by another executive, for his services. The deal was signed in February and he was paid in November without having done any work, he said.
Morrow said he signed the deal because he wanted the engineering firm as a client, describing them as jewel of Quebec industry.
"You don't say no to SNC-Lavalin," Morrow said.
Any work he did for the party he billed directly to them and was paid by Union Montreal, he said.
Morrow said he'd been involved with Tremblay since his time as a provincial politician and gladly accepted to help when he ran for mayor in 2001.
He did communications-related work, but never collected cash.
He has had longstanding ties with past Liberal leaders like Robert Bourassa, Daniel Johnson, and Jean Charest. Federally, he has supported Jean Chretien, John Turner, Michael Ignatieff and Paul Martin.
"I love working in politics, I believe in politics," Morrow said.
Frulla, most recently a political pundit on Radio-Canada television, quit the network after Morrow's name surfaced at the inquiry.
