The Charbonneau Commission heard allegations Wednesday from a former transport ministry employee of possible political inference in the building of a little-used road north of Montreal over a decade ago.

Mario Turcotte, former regional director of the Ministry of Transportation for Laurentides-Lanaudière, recounted the story of the road that links Saint-Donat to Lac Supérieur, which was built between 2001-2003.

Turcotte noted that the ministry originally deemed the road unnecessary, but then-PQ transport minister Guy Chevrette specifically asked for the road to be built.

The municipality of Saint-Donat was initially charged with the task of building the road but that responsibility was passed onto Matawinie and the project was completed relatively rapidly, while $18 million in grants were still on the table.

Turcotte noted that the municipalities did not want the responsibility of maintaining the road after it was finished in December 2003. As a result, the ministry inherited the responsibility of taking care of a road that it didn’t want to build in the first place.

“That’s not the standard process,” said Turcotte. “There’s nothing standard in that project, right up until the taking over of the maintenance. Usually when we built a road, it’s the ministry, the administrators who initiated the project.”

Turcotte, who retired in 2007, notes that the road that links Lac Superieur a town of under 2,000 residents to St. Donat, which has about twice as many residents, remains little-used by cars.

A prosecutor noted that it's considered a wide bicycle path, because so few cars use it.

Accepted gifts

Turcotte also noted that he was invited by Asphalte Desjardins to attend a hockey game at the Bell Centre in 2001 with Chevrette and deputy-ministry Jacques Baril, at a time when the road was being planned.

Turcotte told the commission that he received several gifts during his time at the ministry, ranging from bottles of wine at holidays to football tickets from Gilles Cloutier of the Roch construction company which was also involved in the building of the road.

He also attended an Expos' opening game in Montreal, as well as a party organized by the Sintra construction company and golf games paid for by construction companies.

But he said that the gifts did not influence his judgement.

Turcotte also accused former Liberal MNA for Argenteuil David Whissell of making an unconventional request to alter normal procedure.

Whissell, said Turcotte, asked him to alter the usual procedures for certain contracts in a meeting. 

Turcotte displayed his a note he wrote saying “I have serious questions concerning the legimacy of his visit and the insistence of his demand.”

Turcotte said that he went up the chain of command with his complaint but he was told that nothing could be done.

-With files from The Canadian Press