Dear members,

It’s already been almost two years since, faced with allegations of collusion that upset the spheres of politics and construction, the engineers of Québec demanded a public inquiry to get to the bottom of the issue. The resulting crisis of confidence affecting engineers is an increasingly serious problem which calls for immediate intervention by the Québec government to identify those guilty of these shocking acts and impose sanctions.

In order to restore the badge of honour to engineers, the Réseau des ingénieurs has issued numerous requests for a commission of public inquiry to shed light on these cases of embezzlement and those responsible. According to a survey conducted by the RIQ in 2009 of its members, the vast majority (82%) of engineers feel that these allegations concern both engineering firms and construction contractors.

The Réseau des ingénieurs was very disappointed by the type of commission of public inquiry that the government has proposed the 19th of october, and we felt that a more binding inquiry mechanism with broader powers should have been implemented. Why not use a regulatory framework that has already been proven effective—that provided by the Act respecting public inquiry commissions—instead of setting up such a spineless and inadequate process? We were happy to notice that the governmenet declared his intention to allow the binding power to the commission of inquiry, last sunday. We follow the progress of this issue very closely...

On October 20, the government of Québec initiated a series of actions against corruption and collusion. The Réseau applauds these measures, which will enable better control of contract management and the hiring of a large number of engineers, thus boosting the level of expertise within the Ministry.


Yves Lavoie, Eng,
President
Réseau des ingénieurs du Québec