Nathalie Normandeau in the corruption inquiry hotseat

CTV Montreal: Normandeau testifies at commission Former deputy premier Nathalie Normandeau said there was never a policy to hand out contracts to companies that made donations.

Former deputy premier Nathalie Normandeau said there was never a policy to hand out contracts to companies that made donations to the Liberal Party.

Normandeau, who testified before the Charbonneau Commission for the first time Wednesday, said if such an unethical practice took place, it happened without her knowledge, adding that some of her staffers might be to blame.

During her career in provincial politics Normandeau was minister of regional development, municipal affairs, natural resources and deputy premier, before stepping down in 2011.

Previous witnesses have said that provincial politicians frequently "meddled" in construction contracts, fast-tracking projects and approving extra expenditures against their staff's recommendation.

Others have said that Bruno Lortie, Normandeau's chief of staff, frequently urged staff members to approve certain projects.

Nathalie Normandeau's testimony was the complete opposite from that of her former colleague Julie Boulet, who claimed memory loss. Instead, Normandeau set the tone early on when asked about her tendency to overrule her civil servants on ministerial decisions.

“I didn't put pressure on anyone, but I did fight in order to push certain projects,” she said.

Allegations have been made that while she was minister of municipal affairs, she would ignore recommendations from civil servants, in order to favour projects that ended up benefiting those who made large donations to the Liberal Party, most frequently engineering firms. Normandeau denied it.

“Some people come to fundraisers because they want something in return, but I always maintained a wall between my job as a minister and party activism,” said Normandeau.

That protective wall was maintained by her chief of staff, Lortie.

Appearing before the commission earlier this week, Lortie said nobody had an inappropriate influence over government decisions; not major donors to the Liberal Party, and not even Marc-Yvan Coté, the former Liberal MNA who regarded Lortie as an adoptive son.

Normandeau began her day by saying she stood completely behind Lortie's decisions.

"He's competent. He has political experience, that demonstrates to me that daily he did his job well. He's a hard worker. This is a man that arrived at work at 7 in the morning and would leave at 6-7 o'clock in the evening," said Normandeau.

"Today, Mrs. President, what I can tell you is that in eight years that I've worked with Bruno Lortie, in no time has he ever done anything to make me doubt my confidence in him."

But just half an hour later Normandeau was doubting herself, suggesting that it was possible that Lortie had done things behind her back.

"I hope Mr. Lortie didn't betray my trust," said the former deputy premier. "I don't like the suggestion I was manipulated… If what I heard at the commission is true, then maybe he betrayed my trust.”

Normandeau said that over the months of paying attention to the corruption inquiry, she has grown outraged upon learning that engineering firms manipulated facts and numbers.

"I hope investigations from UPAC will deliver results," she said.

France Charbonneau, the head of the corruption inquiry, countered that journalists and Elections Quebec were documenting illegal political party fundraising schemes for years, including while Normandeau was a cabinet minister.

She said it would have been impossible for Normandeau to ignore her party's fundraising practices and attempts to skirt the law.

“Weren't you naïve?” asked Charbonneau.

“I'm not naive, I'm lucid,” answered Normandeau.

When shown charts showing that Roche did indeed offer the largest donations and received the bulk of the contracts, she admitted that it was indeed troubling.

“Some people think I played the game of favouritism, but that's just not true,” insisted Normandeau, despite the doubts expressed by the commission.