Council cooperation needed |

Open fetter to North Vancouver City mayor
and council: .

The negative comments by North Vancouver
City council surrounding the issue of a tunnel
crossing has once again pitted residents of North
Vancouver against those of West Vancouver.

Unfortunately these remarks have created an
“us versus them” attitude which does nothing to
help unearth positive solutions for a third cross-
ing to the North Shore.

North Vancouver City council comments
indicated a tunnel crossing would oaly be about
solving the traffic problems of West Vancouver
and the community of Horseshoe Bay, and that
West Vancouver residents couldn't detach them-
selves from their cars as a means of transporta-
tion. Both of these remarks are simply unfound-
ed and ignorant.

Iwe are to find any common ground on this

issue We must turn away from the negatives and
concentrate on how we can make a tunnel work
for everyone on the the North Shore.

We must focus on the positives of all the run-
nel proposals, which along with automobile trat-
fic could include the addition of a light rail or
tain line — alternative forms of transportation
which today are not yet available to the North
Shore. I urge you as a newly elected council, to
focus on the commuter challenges which face
North and West Vancouver, and seriously look at
the positive solutions a tunnel crossing would
bring to the North Shore.

Only by working together can we bring
about constructive dialogue that will address the
third crossing concerns in both our communi-
ties.

Ted Nebbeling, MLA
West Vancouver-Garibaldi

RCMP lauded for standoff actions

Dear Editor:

This fetter is in response
to the incident that hap-
pened in Lynn Valley on Feb.
6 (see North Shore News,
Feb. 9).

manner,

5.15%

Year 2

\WEW. CANADA SAVINGS BONDS

T was in the church at that
time and I must say that the
RCMP conducted
selves in a very professional

They took every precau-

tion to protect the public
from injuries.

I'm glad that we have the
RCMP te protect us.
RJ. Gelling
North Vancouver

them-

6.25% Annual compound cate of 5.74% for

Year 3

C-boad if held for 3 years.

Canad

ted white, m.p.

advertorial, February 23. 2000

HROC AND SHAWINIGATE

HRDC AND SHAWINIGATE

In my report last week | mentioned
that the uproar in Parliament over
Human Resources Sevelopment
Canada (HRDC) grants actually had jis
roots back in che Spring of 1999. That
was when Reform MPs first began ask-
ing the Prime Minister questions about
a series of grants given to businesses
in his Riding of St. Maurice. What fol-
lows is some background information
on Shawinigate, as it has come to be
knewn, much of which has not yet been
fully expiored in the mainstream media.

TRANSELEC INC.

On August 27, i996 a company,
Transelec inc, owned by one of the Prime
Minister's friends, Claude Gauthier, was
selected by CIDA (Canadian international
Development Agency) to receive a $6.3
million contract for electrica! work in Mali.
However, the selection process for award-
ing the contract was immediately criticized
as “secretive” by a competitor from

¥ Ontario, and the contract was not finalized

at that time.

About two weeks later, on September 9,
1996 Mr Gauthier incorpcrated a new com-
pany, 3293475 Canada Inc., and on
September 25, 1996 that company pur-

| chased a parce! of undeveloped land from

another company, 161341 Canada inc.
(The Prime Mirister held a 25% interest in
161341 Canada Inc. unti! he sold the
shares in November of 1S99). The land is

| situated beside the Grand Mere Golf

Course, which is also owned by 161341
Canada inc., and the price paid for the
land by Mr Gauthiers new company was
$525,000.

About 9 months later, during the run-up
to the 1997 election, Transelec Inc donat-
ed $10,000 to Mr Chretien's campaign.
Then, on November 7, 1997, after the
Liberals had been returned to power,
Transelec Inc received final approval for
the $6.3 million CIDA contract. in addition,
one of Mr Gauthier's other companies,
Continental Paving, was contracted to

| pave the road leading to the Prime

Ministers cottage. Continental received
this contract from the father-in-law of a Mr
Yvon Duhaime, who had been awarded
the untendered contract, worth $190,000,
to build the road and a guardiiouse. Yvon
Ouhaime owns a hotel, the Auberge {nn
Grand Mere, which is also adjacent to the
Grand Mere Golf Course, ard was listed,
at the time, as housing the Head Office ot
161344 Canada Inc .

AUBERGE INN #1

As mentioned above, the Auberge Inn
Grand-Mere belongs to a Mr Yvon
Duhaime and lies adjacent to the Grand-

Mere Golf Course in the Prime Minister's

Riding. The hotel houses the registered
office of 161341 Canada Inc, a company in
which the Prime Minister held a 25% inter-
est, until he sold the shares last November.

A Transitional! Jobs Fund grant of
$164,000 was awarded to Mr Duhaime at a
press conference on May 28, 1997, just
four days before the lasi election, and

i almost two months before the grant

received Ministerial approval. The TJF
is the program presently under attack by
Reform for sloppy bookkeeping and its
apparent use as a slush fund to reward
Liberal cupporters.) Mr Duhaime also
received a $615,000: loan. from -the

Business Development Bank in 1997, :
along with $50,000 from the Federal:
Regional Development Fund, and £60,799 .

in five different HADC- wage subsidy
grants. The total contributed diractly or
indirectly. by taxpayers to Mr Duhaime's
business over two years amounted to

| $889,799. ; ;

_ IN SUMMARY
ln summary then, a company (161341

« Canada inc) in which the Prime Minister

held 25% of the shares, owned the Grand-

| Mere Golf Course and had its Head Cffice

hote! received a number of grants and
foans totalling $889,799. A company
owned by a friend of the Prime Minister, Mr
Gauthier, purchased land next to the Golf
Course, from 161341 Canada inc, for
$525,000. Mr Gauthier's companies later
received @ $6.3 million contract from CIDA,
and an untendered contract for $190,000
to pave the road leading to the Prime |
Minister's cottage. Reform has argued in
Parliament that these transactions had the
effect of raising the value of the Goi
Course by subsidizing the operations of
the hotel with public money, and establish-
ing a value for the surrounding iand.

In Parliament, under Reform question-
ing, the Prime Minister insisted that he had
sold his shares to a real estate developer
in Toronto, Mr Jonas Prince, a few days
before becoming Prime Minister, but Mr
Prince stated in the press that he only pur-
chased an optien to buy the shares and
never exercised that option. As a result.
the Ethics Counsellor told Mr Chretien that
he would have to publicity declare his own-
ership of the shares in 161347 Canaaa Inc.
if he could not arrange a sale. For two
more years though, the Prime Minister
contiriuad to deny ownership of the shares,
only admitting it by default when he |
announced, in parliament in November of
1999, that he had finally sold them.

AUBERGE INN #2

While there are a number of other
examples of extravagant taxpayer grants
in the Riding of St. Maurice, one of the
most notable is a series of grants and
loans to a $6.4 million hotel project, the
Auberge Inn Gouverneur Shawinigan,
owned by Pierre Thibault, a businessman
from Belgium. Mr Thibauid's company was
iniiially awarded $600,000 on March 13, |
1997 under the HRDC Targeted Wage
Subsidy Program, but Mr Thibault claimed
that he needed capital immediately and {
could not afford to wait for wage subsidies,
so the grant was changed to become part |
of the now discredited Transitional Jobs |
Fund (TJF) program. This grant to Mr
Thibauld’s company did not adhere to the
TJF guidelines, was announced without
any departments! paperwork in place,
and advertised in Mr Chretien's MP
Householder to constituents just before the
election was called in 1997. : :

In September of 1998 Mr Thibauld's
company received a $400,000 uneecured
foan from Canada _— Economic

_ Development ‘for Quebec Regions,

which is a federal regional economic devel-..
opment fund’ you probably did. not ever
know existed. Then in January cf 1999 Mr
Thibauld received yet. another. $100,000

‘under the TJF, to supplement a $925,000 .

Iocan from the Business Development §
Bank. So by January of 1999 taxpayers: |
had directly or indirectly . contributed
$2,025,000, or almost one third of the total
cost of the hotel project. No maiter what
the Prime Minister claims in‘ Parliament;

thé public funding cf private projocts in this.:f ,

manner is simply not acceptable: to the,
majority of tax payers in Canada... |

In addition to the above, there were ||

serious problems with $1.2 million of af oe

$2.04 million TF grant awarded: in
1987/88 to one of Rr Chretien's sup-..
porters, Rene Giguere. The money was

“transferred, via_a complex trust. fund.
‘arrangement, to: a subsidiary of. Mr. |.
.Giguere's company,’ which was then:P).- -

purchased .by.-the’ Mir Gauthier of .j.
Transelec inc mentioned in the. second
paragraph of this report... The pur-: |

chesed subsidiary, Placeteco, was put} -

into. bankruptcy a few months tater, but.
was immediately repurchased ; by. Mr:

‘Gauthier, who restimed operations with‘
“fess than half of the. staff previously:.

employed, claiming he was. no longer:
beund. by the HRDC hiring’ require-.
ments. woes
And who said there wasn't a Santa