Former exec at engineering firm Dessau gets 12 months for rigging Quebec infrastructure bids

OTTAWA—The Competition Bureau says a former executive of Quebec engineering firm Dessau received a 12-month sentence after pleading guilty Jan. 17 in the Court of Quebec to rigging bids for City of Gatineau infrastructure contracts.

Dave Boulay, formerly Dessau’s director and assistant vice-president for Quebec’s Outaouais region, was sentenced to six months of house arrest and six months under curfew.

He admitted to participating in a bid-rigging scheme from 2006 to 2008 in which several engineering firms, including his former employer whose Canadian assets were acquired by Stantec in 2014, conspired to divide up city contracts among themselves without the municipality’s knowledge.

The regulator says Boulay received leniency in sentencing because of his co-operation with the investigation and the fact that he had no role in the instigation of the bid-rigging scheme.

Court proceedings are ongoing against three co-accused: Andre Mathieu, formerly vice-president and associate of Cima+; Claude Marquis, formerly regional director, Outaouais for Genivar (now WSP Global) and Michel Famery, formerly regional vice-president, Dessau.

Criminal charges were laid last June against the four men in connection with bid-rigging of 21 Gatineau infrastructure contracts awarded between 2004 and 2008.