Opposition renews attack on Tory organizer over bridge contracts

OTTAWA — Opposition parties in the House of Commons renewed attacks on a prominent Conservative party organizer and senator from Montreal on Monday, raising questions about the government's links to a well-known construction-industry executive and a controversial engineering contract for Montreal's Champlain Bridge.

While the Liberals questioned whether Tory Senator Leo Housakos knew Montreal businessman Antonio Accurso, the Bloc Quebecois alleged the Harper government had implemented a "system" at the Federal Bridge Corporation that was designed to reward Conservative friends.

Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe noted the government had nominated several administrators at the board of directors, including Raymond Brunet, a construction-industry entrepreneur who gave more than $2,000 to the Conservative association in the riding of Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon.

The Crown corporation has begun an internal review after revelations that two administrators of a wholly owned subsidiary for federal bridges in Montreal were at a Conservative Party event, with other engineering firms, a few months before a $1.4-million contract was awarded to a consortium of companies, including a firm that had employed Housakos.

"Isn't this the proof of the existence of a system, in which friends are placed in key positions so that they can give contracts to firms, such as BPR, where Senator Housakos worked?" Duceppe asked in the Commons.

Cannon, the former transport minister, said the federal corporation operates independently from the government.

"If the leader of the Bloc Quebecois really has formal accusations to bring forward, he knows exactly what he must do and he knows where he has to go," Cannon said.

A few minutes later, Transport Minister John Baird blasted Liberal MP Marcel Proulx for asking questions about whether Accurso had met with Housakos and had access to the prime minister.

"All we have is the political muckraking of the members opposite," said Baird. "I wonder whether these same members would have the courage to make these outrageous statements outside of this place."

Accurso runs three companies that were raided by the Canada Revenue Agency in April as part of an investigation into what the government described as a "false invoicing scheme." One of the companies, Simard-Beaudry, was also part of a consortium that won a multimillion-dollar municipal infrastructure contract in Montreal that was later cancelled after an auditor general's report that examined the contract-awarding process and recommended a police investigation.

NDP Deputy Leader Thomas Mulcair said the federal government should do more to investigate allegations of price-fixing and collusion in the construction industry, by providing more support for the federal Competition Bureau, to ensure that public money on infrastructure projects is being properly spent.

"The federal government has the obligation to follow the money," Mulcair said in an interview. "You have the investigative authority (at the Competition Bureau), you have the people, you have the capability of doing it. Check it out right away."

mdesouza@canwest.com