A week before his re-election, Prime Minister François Legault and his candidate Kateri Champagne Jourdain, then an employee and lobbyist of the project promoter, met with those responsible for the Apuiat wind farm.
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Prime Minister François Legault beaming at the table had his strong candidate Kateri Champagne Jourdain on his left, who was elected and expected to be appointed minister on Thursday, but Ms Champagne Jourdain was wearing a second hat at the time: she was Director of Community Relations at Boralex and had unpaid leave during the election campaign.
She was even registered as a lobbyist for Boralex, one of the two sponsors of the Apuiat project.
At the same table were representatives from Boralex and Innergex. The two wind energy companies have attractive contracts with Hydro-Québec.
There were also Innu chiefs, locally elected officials and the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Ian Lafrenière.
The meeting took place on September 27th in Sept-Îles. Although the Prime Minister posted a photo on social media, the talks took place behind closed doors.
When asked by Le Journal, the prime minister’s office refused to specify the content of the discussions, merely saying that Kateri Champagne Jourdain was present “as a candidate for the CAQ”.
“Unhealthy Living Together”
Two ethics experts we consulted yesterday consider such a meeting between the prime minister and the employer of a strong candidate to be morally questionable, especially since that employer is doing business with the state.
“[Mme Champagne Jourdain] has broken no law, but morally and ethically it strongly challenges the power of corporations over our governments,” said Saidatou Dicko, professor of accounting at the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM), an expert on corporate lobbying.
“The unhealthy interaction between politics and business causes our ethical values to falter,” she goes so far as to say.
“It poses a problem for the ability of government decision-makers to defend their legitimacy,” notes Michel Séguin, professor and expert in ethics at UQAM.
Withdrew after our call
On October 11, Le Journal noted that Ms Champagne Jourdain was still on the lobbyists’ register. Boralex informed us that the newly elected member was no longer employed “as of last October 3 in accordance with the Quebec Elections Act.”
And the next day, October 12, Mrs. Champagne Jourdain’s registration was removed from the register.
Could the newly elected be subject to sanctions? Nothing is less safe.
The code of honor for elected members of the National Assembly stipulates that certain offices are incompatible with the office of deputy, in particular the exercise of any lobbying activity.
However, nothing is planned in relation to the candidates, neither are the candidates who have been elected but not yet sworn in.
“If there is reason to believe that a member might be in breach of any provision of the Code, the Commissioner, on his own initiative or at the request of one or the other Member of the National Assembly, could open an investigation,” says the Commissioner for Ethics and Professional Conduct .
When Kateri Champagne Jourdain was a lobbyist, five of Boralex’s nine mandates are aimed at communicating specifically with the Ministry of the Executive Council (François Legault’s ministry) and three are aimed directly at the Prime Minister.
THE APUIAT PROJECT IN BRIEF
- Boralex, worth a business 4 billion dollars on the stock exchange, envisages construction 50 wind turbines with a total output of 200MW near Port-Cartier, on the north coast.
- The project was set up in 2018when François Legault came to power.
- Boralex and the Innu signed a mutual agreement last year 30 years with Hydro Quebec.
Kateri Champagne Jourdain became the first indigenous woman to be elected to the National Assembly on October 3.
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