Inappropriate lobbying, conflicts of interest and other questionable practices were once rife in a provincial body that oversees the construction industry.
Quebec’s Construction Commission chief Diane Lemieux gave herself credit for eradicating questionable practices commonplace at the government body prior to her arrival in 2011.
Lemieux, speaking at the Charbonneau Commission Thursday morning, said that board members were subject to undue influence from interested parties before her reforms were put in place.
She told the commission that she was rapidly made aware of the low bar that the organization had set when she was asked by a union leader to arrange trade papers for a third party, a clear violation of protocol.
She conceded that after the reforms, employers and union officials felt bitter that their access was diminished in the new regime.
Lemieux portrayed herself as a hard-liner against intimidation on construction sites. Indeed she was once described by an observer as having “an iron fist in a concrete glove."
The CCQ, which has over 1,000 employees and an annual budget of about $150 million, supports the construction industry and its workers and manages conditions and salaries among other tasks.
The group devotes 28 percent of its budget into inspections and investigations, she noted.
