A former head of the Federal Bridge Corporation is going to prison.
Michel Fournier has pleaded guilty to taking kickbacks in connection with a $127 million contract to resurface the Jacques Cartier Bridge in 2000.
Fournier received $2.3 million in bribes from 2001 until 2003 from a consortium that included SNC-Lavalin.
He was sentenced to five and a half years in prison, and will be eligible for parole in 11 months.
He and his wife, Judith Barkley-Fournier, were arrested in June 2016 and charged with possession of property obtained by crime, money laundering, and fraud.
All other charges filed against Fournier were stayed, while the charges against Barkley-Fournier were dropped.
The federal government was able to recoup $760,000.
Fournier, 65, was chief of staff to Liberal party leader Jean Chretien in the early 1990s, and president of the federal corporation for seven years.
