The latest news coming from Ontario on political financing was received with some amusement in Quebec.

Half-a-million dollars a year? That's quite a handsome amount for one single provincial cabinet minister to raise from political donations. Former premier Jean Charest is still vilified in Quebec for having asked his ministers to raise $100,000 a year. History shows it led to questionable financing, dubious relations with business people and the taint of corruption.

Similar causes having similar effects, Ontarians may have legitimate reasons to worry.

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For years, Quebec "lived in the world of Bambi," Denis Gallant, inspector general of the City of Montreal, said Tuesday. Before being appointed as a municipal watchdog in 2014, Mr. Gallant was chief counsel for the Charbonneau Commission on corruption.

On many occasions during the Charbonneau hearings, the province looked more like Goodfellas than Bambi. But there is no denying that lessons were learned.

Mr. Gallant was participating in a day-long symposium in La Prairie, Que., to review the achievements of the province's anti-corruption unit, UPAC, five years after its foundation.

The star of the symposium was Mark G. Peters, commissioner for the Department of Investigation of New York. The DOI investigates every department in that megacity, from cost-overruns to corruption, and from delays in public works to the city's procurements. "Is something crooked in NYC?" asks the website of the DOI, which encourages anonymous tips from the public.

Mr. Peters said he is following UPAC's work closely, calling it "very impressive." The arrests last month of former Liberal deputy premier Nathalie Normandeau and six other people on 13 criminal counts, including breach of trust and fraud on government, "were very exciting all the way to New York," he said.

"Corruption, I suppose, is part of the human condition," Mr. Peters added. "Every time you close off a bunch of vulnerabilities, there is someone looking for a new way around." People at the DOI know a bit about corruption: The office was created in 1873.

UPAC, since its creation under a cloud of doubts in 2011, has not only proceeded to arrest 164 public officials and private contractors, but it also helped prevent abuse, trained people and raised awareness. UPAC commissioner Robert Lafrenière is in contact with his New York counterpart and exchanges information about new corruption schemes.

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The wave of arrests in the past five years is by no means an indication that corruption is on the rise. Historically, it is arguably declining – remember how John A. Macdonald financed his campaigns? These recent high-profile arrests suggest that public tolerance for corruption in every form is vanishing in Quebec. Pressure was applied to confront the issue, resources were allocated and new police squads and various watchdogs were put in place.

Corruption is a silent crime without victims – except the public. You don't find a body on the sidewalk. You are not going to find it, let alone prove it, if you don't look very hard for it.

It may be that Quebec has had more than its fair share of corruption in Canada. Or maybe it just exposed it more crudely.

In any event, the province now has powerful anti-corruption tools like nowhere else in Canada.

yves.boisvert@lapresse.ca