Plante says Coderre’s work for Publisac distributor puts him in conflict of interest

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In 2019, a city council committee considered banning the widespread distribution of promotional material in favor of a voluntary subscription model. At the time, Coderre was a consultant for parent company Transcontinental.

Author of the article:

Jason magder • Montreal Gazette

Denis Coderre, Ensemble Montréal leader and mayoral candidate.
Denis Coderre, Ensemble Montréal leader and mayoral candidate. Photo by Pierre Obendrauf /Montreal Gazette

Denis Coderre was defending himself Thursday after his main opponent accused him of being in a potential conflict of interest for having agreed to work for Publisac’s publisher Transcontinental Inc..

Coderre revealed that he worked for the publishing giant as the city pondered whether to ban Publisac’s free distribution. In 2019, a city council committee considered banning the widespread distribution of promotional material in favor of a voluntary subscription model. At that time, Coderre I was a consultant to the company.

Transcontinental was omitted from the Coderre employers list disclosed Wednesday from the time he lost the mayoralty in 2017. Coderre said it was the only company that did not want to waive a confidentiality clause.

Plante said Coderre should have made his relationship with Transcontinental public before running for office. She said Coderre is in a conflict of interest as Francesco Miele, Coderre’s campaign manager, was the vice chairman in charge of the city council committee that looked at the issue when he sat down as city councilor.

“The fact is that Mr. Coderre was paid, accepted a Transcontinental contract and Transcontinental tried to influence a part of the process related to Publisac,” Plante said. “We can wonder why Mr. Coderre didn’t feel the need, from day one, to say: ‘I worked for Transcontinental; I advised Transcontinental while there was a commission on the future of Publisac made by the city of Montreal. And when you know that your campaign manager was the vice president of the commission that studied Publisac, what were the links? Were there conversations?

“All of this is part of the notion of transparency. I find it regrettable that Mr. Coderre is outraged that Montréal’s are asking questions. It is normal for Montréal to want to know who they are voting for. “

Coderre denied that he is in conflict.

“I have answered all the questions about my relationship with a client,” he said, adding that he will go through the ethics advisor if the issue of Publisac comes up.

Coderre said he has no transparency lessons to learn from Plante as he kept quiet about a sexual misconduct investigation involving Craig Sauvé, an associate counsel to the executive committee and vice chairman of the board of the Société de transport de Montréal.

“Is the mayor talking about this to create a distraction? Do you want to talk about Publisac when there are accusations around a member of your executive committee? He said he didn’t know, but he did, ”Coderre said. “Why did you lie about this?”

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Reference-montrealgazette.com

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