QUEBEC CITY -- The chairman of the FTQ Solidarity Fund testified at the National Assembly Tuesday at a time when many people - Premier Pauline Marois included - are saying the way the $9 billion investment fund is managed needs to change.
MNAs grilled Michel Arsenault for more than three hours, one day after he stepped down from the position amid controversial allegations.
Arsenault maintains the fund is well-managed and said what has come out at the Charbonneau Commission only concerns issues from five or six years ago.
In a testy exchange with reporters in Quebec City, Arsenault insisted nothing improper took place when he met privately with Marois in 2008 and 2009.
It was around the same time her husband's company, Capital BLF, received a $3 million dollar grant from the solidarity fund.
Arsenault defended the fund and said isn't perfect, but has made strides to improve its operations.
“We fixed things in 2009, that's where we started. When we heard the allegations, we immediately fixed things and this is a process. We have to get better every day and we're working on it every day,” said Arsenault.
The FTQ fund will set up a committee of experts to look at governance and ethics.
The fund has 600,000 investors – many of them union members – and it made a profit last year of $458 million.
