OTTAWA—SNC-Lavalin executives and lawyers kept in close contact with the Prime Minister’s Office as Justin Trudeau’s senior staff worked on finding a “solution” for the Quebec construction giant’s legal woes.

Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion’s report on the SNC-Lavalin affair Wednesday revealed new details about the interaction between senior political staff in the Trudeau government and executives at the company.

Dion’s investigation, which ruled Trudeau broke the conflict of interest law for the second time, found a senior adviser to the prime minister had been engaged on the question of offering a “deferred prosecution agreement” to SNC-Lavalin since 2016.

A deferred prosecution agreement, also called a “remediation agreement” in Dion’s report, would allow SNC-Lavalin to avoid a criminal trial into fraud and bribery allegations — and a 10-year ban on federal contracts, should the company be convicted — in exchange for a monetary penalty and corporate reforms.

The company also floated the idea of deferred prosecution agreements with Finance Minister Bill Morneau, a month before his 2018 budget bill amended the Criminal Code to allow them.

Below is a select timeline of interactions between senior political staff in the Trudeau government and SNC-Lavalin executives and lawyers.

Early 2016

Trudeau and a senior adviser, Mathieu Bouchard, met with SNC-Lavalin’s CEO and senior representatives. According to Trudeau, the company discussed the consequences of a criminal conviction on the company. Trudeau testified that he instructed Bouchard to look into “remediation agreements” and how other countries handle similar situations, and tasked Bouchard with staying on top of the SNC-Lavalin file.

Sept. 25 to Nov. 17, 2017

The federal government holds public consultations on legal tools for dealing with corporate wrongdoing.

Jan. 23, 2018

SNC-Lavalin requests a meeting between CEO Neil Bruce and Morneau at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Morneau and his policy adviser, Justin To, met with Bruce and the issue of “remediation agreements” came up. According to To, Bruce warned of “negative economic impacts” if the company couldn’t reach a deal.

Feb. 2, 2018

Bruce and other SNC-Lavalin representatives met with To in Ottawa, as a followup to the Davos meeting. From Dion’s report:

“The company presented Mr. To with a confidential discussion document outlining reasons in support of a remediation agreement regime and the company’s request for timely implementation of a regime via the federal budget. According to the document, this strategy would increase the likelihood of a settlement of the company’s pending criminal charges, of the company maintaining its head office in Canada for the foreseeable future and of an increase in its workforce.”

Feb. 22, 2018

The federal government releases the results of a public consultation on deferred prosecution agreements, which found that the majority of respondents supported the idea. Five days later, Morneau’s omnibus budget bill included amendments to the Criminal Code to allow for deferred prosecution agreements.

March, 2018

Trudeau receives a memo from the Privy Council Office, the central agency that supports the prime minister, stating that SNC-Lavalin told federal officials it has a “Plan B” if the government did not bring in deferred prosecution agreements. According to Dion’s report, SNC’s “Plan B” involved splitting up the company and moving parts of SNC-Lavalin Group to another jurisdiction.

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November 2018

Dion’s report said SNC-Lavalin’s lawyers and representatives began to increase their “communications with government officials and staff in the Prime Minister’s Office with a view to finding solutions to override the Director of Public Prosecutions’ (DPP) decision.”

“(Staff) in the Prime Minister’s Office were told that the company’s board of directors was close to escalating measures in respect of their ‘Plan B,’” the report noted.

Around the same time, Morneau and then-Treasury Board president Scott Brison met with Kevin Lynch, a former top bureaucrat now working with SNC, at a conference in Beijing, China. According to Morneau and Brison, the conversation was brief but focused on the Director of Public Prosecutions’ decision to not negotiate a deal. SNC told Dion that Lynch also floated the idea of third-party legal experts to provide advice to then-attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould on remediation agreements.

SNC-Lavalin’s lawyers prepared two legal opinions on the matter that were shared with the PMO, government officials, ministers and ministerial staff. Frank Iacobucci, SNC’s legal counsel and a former Supreme Court justice, shared an opinion with Wilson-Raybould outlining “the legitimacy for her to intervene in criminal matters seized by the prosecution service.”

Read the full report View document on Scribd

The same opinion was shared with Brison. SNC-Lavalin lawyer Robert Prichard wrote in a Nov. 2 email that the company was “considering other ways to make it easier for the minister to engage and reverse the (DPP) decision. In the end, however, it will take a deliberate decision from the centre …”

On Nov. 27, Trudeau advisers Bouchard and Elder Marques met with Prichard to discuss Iacobucci’s legal opinion and another, authored by former Supreme Court justice John Major.

“Mr. Prichard proposed a settlement of the judicial review (into the DPP’s decision not to offer a deal) … indicating the company would settle the action in return for the government’s adoption of a process that would lead to an invitation to negotiate a remediation agreement,” the report reads.

December 2018

Senior Trudeau political aides, including former principal secretary Gerald Butts and current Chief of Staff Katie Telford, continue to discuss a “solution” for SNC-Lavalin with Wilson-Raybould and her staff. On Dec. 19, former Privy Council Clerk Michael Wernick calls Wilson-Raybould to discuss the case, saying the prime minister remained determined to find a solution for the company and “he’s going to find a way to get it done, one way or another.”

December 2018 to Feb. 7, 2019

Dion reports that “senior staff in the Prime Minister’s Office continue to have discussions with SNC-Lavalin’s legal counsel on next steps and possible solutions until allegations that Ms. Wilson-Raybould had been pressured on the matter were made public on Feb. 7, 2019.” The next day, Dion’s office began its investigation.

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