MONTREAL—For the first time at the Charbonneau Commission, the City of Longueuil was been directly implicated in collusion and illegal political financing on Monday.

The damning testimony came from Yves Cadotte, a vice-present of engineering giant SNC-Lavalin, who was back on the stand again after admitting last week that his company was responsible for over $1 million in illegal political financing.

“There was political financing, and for a certain period of time there was a system in place to award contracts,” he said

That allegation, something SNC says it is investigating, shook the company when it was first uttered.

One of the key elements of collusion in Montreal was that engineering firms formed into a cartel, where they kept competitors out.

“In return for donations to Union Montreal, each firm got its turn at a contract,” explained CTV Montreal legal affairs reporter Stephane Giroux.

Cadotte testified to a similar system in Longueuil where five engineering firms, a group that included SNC, also contributed illegal campaign funds to the former administrations of Jacques Olivier and Claude Gladu.

“Four more firms were present, there was; Dessau, SM, Genivar, CIMA+, and us,” he said, explaining that contracts were divided up between the firms as political rewards for generosity. “We were getting instructions from people telling us, ‘You'll get this contract.’”

According to Cadotte, the system was in place until the end of Gladu’s term in 2009.

“As an analogue to what was done in Montreal, we received information from people at the city who would tell us, you will be considered for this or that contract,” said Cadotte.

The vice-president didn’t go into details about how his firm benefitted from the system.

While Cadotte has been forthcoming with many details, he was reprimanded by the commission for insisting that the system in place wasn’t one of collusion. A counsel for the commission warned Cadotte to “stop playing with words” in his attempts to explain away the system.

The witness was not very forthcoming with other questions, hesitating when asked if similar systems of collusion existed in other cities. Cadotte briefly mentioned the south-shore town of Candiac, before retracting and telling the commission he wasn’t sure.

He refused to admit engineering firms were fixing prices, arguing that fundraisers such as Bernard Trepanier in Montreal were the ones calling the shots.

Justice Charbonneau disagreed.

“If you knew in advance who was winning the call for tenders, it was basically collusion,” she said.

Another witness, Pierre Lavallée of BPR engineering, also testified he took part in the financing of political parties in exchange for contracts. He now says he should have known better.

“I thought it was shameful and degrading,” he said, adding that he did paid up to win contracts.

Last November, star witness Lino Zambito told the commission that a number of legal and engineering firms had all but hijacked the municipalities on Montreal’s north shore, subverting the democratic process with puppet mayors to ensure a steady flow of contracts.

Bernard Trepanier is expected to take the stand next week.