Tony Accurso: Political donations good for business
Hugo Bourgoin, QMI Agency
05 September 2014
MONTREAL — Construction magnate Tony Accurso told an inquiry that he
pumped plenty of cash into all three main Quebec provincial parties —
not to help them, but to help himself.
The Charbonneau Commission reported Friday that Accurso's empire made
nearly $750,000 in political donations between 1998 and 2011, including
$556,000 to the provincial Liberals, who were in power for seven of
those 13 years.
The separatist Parti Quebecois, in power for the other six years, got
$154,185 from Accurso's network of companies. The now-defunct ADQ,
which was briefly the official opposition, received $37,825.
Accurso, who headed up the province's biggest construction empire at the time, said he felt compelled to contribute.
"Political donations were not necessarily to help (them)," he
testified. "The goal was not to harm yourself. It's something my father
taught me: don't ask a politician to help. Ask him not to harm you."
He explained how his firms were able to donate far in excess of the
limits set out by Quebec law. Accurso said his companies
"systematically" reimbursed employees who made contributions on his
companies' behalf.
It was the same scheme used to pour cash into the coffers of the
federal Liberals, as described a decade ago at the Gomery inquiry.
Accurso claimed this week that he was punished for failing to be sufficiently generous to the PQ.
On Thursday he told the inquiry that in September 2012, Hydro-Quebec
received "a political order" to shut all of his companies out of all
utility contracts.
Pauline Marois had just been elected premier.
"Pauline Marois's office called Hydro-Quebec and said 'bar him from your construction sites,'" Accurso claimed.
"I found it to be disgusting. Maybe I hadn't given enough money to the PQ, I don't know."
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