At the Evergreen Line station announcement at the weekend, B.C. Transport Minister Mary Polak could not explain why a report about the awarding of the line's construction contract to embattled SNC-Lavalin remains secret six months after it was produced.
The Montreal-headquartered engineering giant is accused of corruption in various jurisdictions around the world. It was hired last fall to design and build the $1.43 billion, 11-kilometre SkyTrain extension to the Tri-Cities.
The final report by the fairness monitor, lawyer Jane Shackell of Miller Thomson, was received by the Evergreen Line project board on September 21, 2012. It was still not published when Polak held a news conference to announce station names March 23.
“There was no particular reason for a delay – it’s been six months, it’ll be out next week,” Polak said on Saturday. “There’s nothing untoward going on here.”
Polak downplayed the allegations against SNC-Lavalin and said there are standard provisions in the contract to ensure taxpayers are protected.
“We have had very good working relationships with SNC on other projects, haven’t had any of those problems here in British Columbia,” Polak said. “A very, very large company, very diverse, they have distinct and separate entities within the larger SNC-Lavalin, so we don’t have any concerns.”
Asked if the government sought the RCMP’s help in vetting SNC-Lavalin, she said, “We don't typically have the RCMP proactively review contracts, what we do have is a fairness adviser who reviews the procedures.”
SNC-Lavalin’s transportation division is headquartered in Vancouver. Its resume includes being the owner’s representative/project and construction manager since 1992 for Vancouver International Airport, owner’s engineer on the Sea-to-Sky Highway expansion, manager of construction and maintenance of all 47 B.C. Ferries terminals via the Terminal Asset Management joint venture, and builder of the Bill Bennett Bridge in Kelowna and Canada Line SkyTrain system.
“The core group of people in this office have been around 15 to 20 years, some worked on the province’s side, some have worked on our side,” SNC-Lavalin project director Dave Weatherby told Business in Vancouver. “This group of people here is not impacted by anything that's going on elsewhere.”
SNC-Lavalin is facing class-action lawsuits from investors in Ontario and Quebec and criminal investigations into the company’s affairs stretch from Africa to Europe to Asia. Former CEO Pierre Duhaime, who quit last November, is facing bribery charges related to the McGill University hospital project.
The Bloc Quebecois and NDP complained to Elections Canada about donations made by a dozen SNC-Lavalin executives to a Conservative candidate in Quebec, two days before the 2011 federal election. Corporate donations are banned under federal laws.
Shackell also produced a fairness report on the Prince George Wood Innovation and Design Centre tendering process, published last week by Partnerships BC. It dismissed allegations by two bidders that Minister Pat Bell promised them they would be shortlisted.
The contract has been awarded to PCL Construction Westcoast and Michael Green Architects, Bell announced Friday.
