MONTREAL — Nearly two years after launching its public hearings, the Charbonneau Commission appears to be building up to a final, riveting climax.

On Thursday afternoon, at the precise moment the inquiry began hearing from a former provincial transport minister, it was revealed that Justice France Charbonneau and her team plan to meet with every provincial party leader and premier to hold office since 1997.

The inquiry itself would not confirm or deny the plans, which would presumably include closed-door meetings in the coming weeks with the likes of Jean Charest, Bernard Landry, Mario Dumont and Pauline Marois.

It was the Coalition Avenir Québec that broke the news, preferring to go public with the planned sit-down between its leader, François Legault, and the commission’s investigators before the news could leak out via some other channel.

“The Coalition Avenir Québec would like to make clear that, at the request of the (commission), no further public comments will be made about this meeting,” the party said in a release.

It is unclear if, following the interviews, any of the leaders or former premiers will be called to testify under oath before the anti-corruption inquiry, which has been tasked with investigating corruption and collusion in Quebec’s construction industry.

Meanwhile, at its headquarters in downtown Montreal, the commission finally reached the top of the provincial transportation department’s chain of command — hearing directly from former Parti Québécois transport minister Guy Chevrette.

Chevrette, who held various ministerial posts in numerous PQ governments between 1976 and 2002, was confident — at times even defiant — as he answered questions about his time in cabinet and his participation in party fundraising activities. The witness had been publicly demanding the opportunity to appear before the inquiry since last year, when engineering firm consultant Gilles Cloutier testified that Chevrette had intervened in a provincial roadworks contract as a favour to a friend, and that engineering firm Roche paid for favouritism and access to the then-minister.

Chevrette has vehemently denied those allegations.

“I’m as straight as you are,” he told co-commissioner Renaud Lachance on Thursday afternoon — a comment that was greeted with stony silence.

Chevrette was serving as transport minister in the early 2000s when the province approved a $18.8-million subsidy to build a seemingly redundant stretch of highway between the towns of St-Donat and Lac-Supérieur, north of Montreal. The project was not part of Transport Quebec’s original plans, and according to the department’s former regional director in the region, seemed riddled with inconsistencies from start to finish.

On Thursday, Chevrette admitted that he “got involved” with the contract, but denied that he did anything inappropriate.

“It’s true that I got involved” Chevrette said. “But it’s up to politicians to direct development.”

He did not elaborate, but he is expected to face further questions on the matter on Friday morning.

Chevrette was also asked on Thursday about the PQ’s fundraising activities. He denied that there were fundraising quotas for individual MNAs and ministers, but said there were fundraising targets set based on the number of party members in a riding.

Chevrette is the first of what will likely be a string of cabinet ministers and MNAs — both past and present — to take the stand as the Charbonneau Commission probes the awarding of provincial roadworks contracts in Quebec between 1997 and 2012. Current Liberal MNA and former transport minister Julie Boulet confirmed to various media outlets on Thursday that she has been subpoenaed. Former Liberal minister David Whissell, whose name has been mentioned repeatedly at the inquiry in recent weeks, is also a likely candidate.

The inquiry’s public hearings will resume Friday morning at 9:30.

mmuise@montrealgazette.com

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