The highly influential Minister, Pierre Fitzgibbon, had 12 official meetings with businessmen with whom he had previously sat on boards, our Bureau of Investigation found.
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The Legault government’s superminister, who has been in the ethical limelight since entering politics, has often shrugged off these controversies, citing friendships and private meetings.
However, as part of his official duties, he has also met with former board colleagues on several occasions, as our analysis of his public agenda shows.
Three of these interviews were even with executives from companies in which Mr. Fitzgibbon was already a director and owned shares.
One of these meetings with the President of the Transcontinental Printing House was preceded by a few months’ granting of $3 million in support to that firm.
We identified these 12 meetings by matching the names listed in the minister’s public agenda with those of around 160 people with whom he sat on boards.
In a sign that these meetings can be tricky, three other ministers have had to endorse financial support to replace Mr Fitzgibbon when it came to his former business partners (see other text below).
subjects
Saidatou Dicko, a governance expert and professor at the University of Quebec in Montreal, believes Mr Fitzgibbon should have distanced himself from his former business partners.
“If we can’t immediately attribute bad intentions to him, we can question his impartiality,” she notes.
“Why didn’t he delegate another minister to these meetings? He should have. Appearances are sometimes more important than reality when it comes to ethics and public leadership,” she adds.
In an October 2020 report, Ethics Commissioner Ariane Mignolet regretted that Minister Fitzgibbon had taken “no specific action”. […] to avoid “conflicts of interest” on the part of the lobbyists he encounters in the course of his duties.
“It is necessary to maintain a certain distance from one’s friends, especially when these people’s professional fields may be related,” she wrote.
On that occasion, even Prime Minister François Legault felt that his minister “should not have met his friend” and saw “a problem of fairness” in this.
This tendency to delegate little is reminiscent of the echo Le Journal received among his fellow ministers.
“He runs a government within a government all by himself,” one of them said, according to what we read about Mr Fitzgibbon in our March 11 filing.
trustworthy people
According to another governance expert, however, it can make sense for the minister to meet with former business partners.
“If he wants a measure of the state of business, it’s good that he can talk to people he trusts about it,” said Patric Besner, vice president of the Institute on Governance.
The Minister’s reply goes in the same direction.
“Mr Fitzgibbon has been fortunate to serve on many boards. This gives him excellent knowledge of the environment,” says Mathieu St-Amand, communications director at the Minister’s office.
Mr Fitzgibbon has not violated the Code of Ethics for Elected Officers in any way, he says based on a recent decision by the Ethics Commissioner.
– With Philippe Langlois
Together in three companies
Photo from Mario Paradis Twitter account
According to the Minister’s agenda Mario paradise met Pierre Fitzgibbon in December 2018 to discuss the future of Neptune Technologies, the company he leads.
The minister and Mr Paradis know each other well: they have held joint shares in three different companies, namely Neptune, Acasti Pharma and Atrium Innovations. On another occasion, Mr. Paradis succeeded Mr. Fitzgibbon on a board of directors, that of Functionalab.
As for the specific case of Neptune, which develops and markets healthcare products, the minister managed the company while Mr. Paradis was its vice-president from 2015 to 2017.
A scholarship three months later
Photo from the TC Transcontinental website
Pierre Fitzgibbon met the then President of Transcontinental, Francois Olivier, on August 16, 2019, to discuss the company’s “plans.” MM. Olivier and Fitzgibbon served on the TC Board together for almost eight years from 2009 to 2017. It was a paid position.
A few months after the meeting, in November, the printing plant received $3 million in financial assistance from Transcontinental under a program administered by the Department of Commerce. Earlier in the year, another Transcontinental affiliate also received a $9.5 million match from the same program.
Mr Fitzgibbon did not respond to a question as to whether he was personally involved in awarding these grants. However, his office ensures that all of the ministry’s transactions follow a process of “the strictest”. As of March 2017, Mr. Fitzgibbon held nearly half a million dollars worth of Transcontinental stock. The minister’s assets have been managed by an external body since 2018, so it is not known if he still holds shares in the company.
Recall that in 2022, François Olivier’s daughter, Jeanne, worked as an adviser in Mr Fitzgibbon’s cabinet for about 8 months. She had joined the minister’s office directly from the controversial consulting firm McKinsey after working on a mandate he had given.
$2 million for a mining company
Photo from the Arianne Phosphate website
Minister Fitzgibbon had a meeting with the Executive Chair of Arianne Phosphate, Dominic Bouchardin June 2020. Topic for discussion: Quebec’s economic recovery with the Industrial Research Sector Groups.
Eight other players from the community attended the meeting. In addition to his role as Managing Director, Mr. Bouchard represented the Center Québécois de research et de development de l’aluminium.
MM. Fitzgibbon and Bouchard served together on the Board of Directors of Arianne Phosphate from September 2013 to June 2016.
Since the Legault government came to power, Investissement Québec has invested $2 million in mining company Saguenay. It was not Mr Fitzgibbon but his colleague at the time, Marie-Ève Proulx, who had recommended the investment, under the decrees endorsing the funding.
Fitzgibbon replaced by three ministers
In a sign that precautions are sometimes called for, Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon has been replaced by three colleagues on certain business cases he was already associated with.
Twice, in 2019 and 2020, it was former Regional Economic Development Minister Marie-Ève Proulx who officially recommended Investissement Québec to support Arianne Phosphate with public funds.
Mr. Fitzgibbon was Chairman of the Board of Directors of this mining company and also held shares (see other text above).
deferred
As of September 2021, Treasury Secretary Eric Girard replaced Pierre Fitzgibbon on the files of Immervision and White Star Capital, two companies in which he was a shareholder.
It was at this time that Mr Fitzgibbon regained his position as Minister, having been marginalized precisely because of the shares he owned in those two companies.
Eventually, Sonia LeBel replaced her business colleague when she provided $7 million in financial support to grocer Mayrand/Alimplus, Le Devoir reported in December 2021. This company is part of the portfolio of Walter Capital Partners, where Mr. Fitzgibbon was a managing partner before entering politics.
Explanations
When asked about this, the Minister’s Office remained unclear as to why colleagues took over in these specific cases.
“That is the process established with the Executive,” we said simply, no doubt referring to the Council of Ministers.
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