Article content continued

“The investigation conducted within the framework of Project Honorer demonstrated the existence of a system of collusion and corruption in the awarding of public contracts at the city of Laval,” Dussault told Brunton. “Contrary to other cases involving collusion where the colluding companies make agreements without the knowledge of the (city) paying, Gilles Vaillancourt and certain bureaucrats in the municipal administration were aware of the system.

The prosecutor also said the investigation revealed that construction companies and engineering firms agreed to pay a percentage of the contracts they were awarded to be part of the system of collusion.

In Quebec City, Justice Minister Stéphanie Vallée said Vaillancourt’s guilty plea sends a message to Quebecers.

“I don’t want to comment on the particular case of Mr. Vaillancourt because he’s not alone in this file. This file is not done and over with, but I think the message that we have to bring to the population, Quebecers, is that no one is above the law,” she said.

“You have the law, you have to respect it no matter who you are, no matter who you know, no matter what you do,” she said.

Vallée said she is acting on court delays, which are believed to be putting high-profile cases at risk. A recent Supreme Court decision set firm time limits on how long an accused should be expected to wait for trial after he is charged. The limit in Superior Court is 30 months. Vaillancourt was charged in May 2013.

“We can take action in the way that we do things, in the way we treat the files, in the way we address the issues, in the way we handle the different steps within a file. We can take action by making rooms more available, by having more court time, by adding resources, and this is what we’re working on,” Vallée said.

“I’ve also asked everyone involved, judges, the director of penal prosecutions and the justice department to establish the need for additional resources.”

Additional reporting by Caroline Plante, Montreal Gazette