Health Minister Gaétan Barrette has ordered the McGill University Health Centre to cancel the remainder of a $600,000 contract with a Montreal PR firm, saying it’s a waste of money given that the MUHC already has a public-relations department.

“Such a contract should not be pursued and we have asked that it be cancelled,” said Joanne Beauvais, Barrette’s press attaché. “We’d rather pay a penalty than pay (what’s left of) $600,000.”

Michel Fontaine, a deputy health minister, sent the MUHC a directive on Monday instructing it to terminate the contract by the end of the summer or risk being fined. The directive was also sent to all other health-care institutions across Quebec.

Under the directive, the only external PR contracts that will be permitted are those that had already been authorized by the highest levels of the government.

“Obviously, this is unacceptable,” Beauvais said of the MUHC contract with Jonathan Goldbloom and Associates Inc.

“There are communications specialists in place and paid daily by the MUHC, so why would they need an external firm?”

The MUHC awarded the two-year contract last July to JGA, which bills itself as specializing in “strategic communications advice and management.” Goldbloom had previously served as interim director of communications for the MUHC and had carried out a number of consulting contracts for the hospital network over the years, including the MUHC’s successful bid in 2005 to keep the Shriners Hospital in Montreal.

The $600,000 contract with JGA specifies that Goldbloom is to act as a “consultant to the executive office” of the MUHC, whose executive director is Normand Rinfret, Le Journal de Montréal reported on Sunday.

Rinfret has served as the executive director of the MUHC since December 2011, when he replaced Arthur Porter. Porter is currently fighting extradition to Canada to face criminal charges alleging he defrauded the MUHC of $22.5 million in the $1.3-billion superhospital construction contract. A police detective testifying at the Charbonneau Commission has described the alleged Porter conspiracy as the “biggest corruption fraud in the history of Canada.”

It was in the context of the fallout from the Porter controversy that the MUHC awarded the contract to Goldbloom, even though at the time it had been ordered by the government to slash $50 million in expenses from its overall budget.

MUHC officials were not available for comment. However, the MUHC responded with a one-sentence email message to The Gazette on Thursday afternoon, saying: “The MUHC will fully respect the ministerial directive within the time frame provided.”

In June, the provincial ombudsman singled out the MUHC’s PR department for criticism in another file, accusing it of misleading the public in its decision to treat a heart patient from Kuwait over Quebec patients.

Goldbloom, who announced last month he will seek the federal Liberal nomination in Mount-Royal riding, could not be reached for comment.

aderfel@montrealgazette.com

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