STEPHEN RICCIO
MUNICIPALITY OF PONTIAC April 13, 2021
Council members sparred over the circumstances surrounding the purchase of a new dump truck for the Municipality of Pontiac (MoP) during an April 13 meeting.
The council ultimately voted for the purchase by majority, but not before a lengthy discussion between MoP councillors Tom Howard, Scott McDonald, Mayor Joanne Labadie and Director General Pierre Said regarding why the council did not . . .
have more control over the specifications of the dump truck that was being purchased through the resolution.
The resolution called for the purchase of a new truck from Inter Outaouais for $196,942.17, one month after calling for tenders through the provincial electronic tendering system (SEAO) and receiving just the one offer.
Following the mayor reading through the resolution, Howard began questioning the number of wheels on the truck and its tonnage, which were details not made available prior to the meeting.
Said explained that the SEAO tendering process does not allow control over all particular details to that extent, but it did allow for the public works department to request a certain tonnage.
“We cannot specify on calls to tender how much wheels we want,” he said. “We cannot say for example, we want that brand or this model.”
“How do we the Municipality of Pontiac go out and ask somebody to give us a price of a truck when we can’t stipulate what kind of model of truck we want?” Howard said in reply to Said’s explanation. “If it’s a truck for $196,200 I would think if I’m going out to buy a tandem truck, I should have the right to turn around and say, ‘I want this type of braking system, I want this type of transmission, I want this type of air dryer, I want this type of tire on the truck.’”
Said added that the tendering process required technical help from municipal experts such as public works acting director Maxime Renaud, and that the SEAO process was put in place to avoid certain companies being given purchasing advantages.
After Howard again repeated his dismay that the council was voting to purchase a truck that it didn’t know any details about, Labadie said that she had received texts from Renaud during the meeting explaining that the dump truck was an International 15 tonne truck, which is considered on the large end for dump trucks.
McDonald voiced his agreement with Howard, and he questioned whether any other members of council would spend $196,000 of their own money on a truck if they didn’t have a pamphlet to review beforehand.
Echoing Said’s explanation, Labadie explained that the SEAO process was put in place by the provincial government because some municipalities can forgo impartiality through different purchases and the tendering process counters that. She also said that the standards set during the tendering process were met, but that the council typically never went over specifications of public equipment during meetings before.
Following the back and forth, McDonald and councillor Nancy Maxsom Draper voted against the resolution while Howard voted for it “against his better judgement” to approve the purchase by a vote tally of 4-2.
Prior to casting his vote, Howard was critical of the council’s dump truck buying process.
“We as a council back months ago said we wanted to buy a dump truck,” he said. “We were told as council we can’t find a used truck and now we’re paying a little under $200,000 for a new truck and we only find out tonight as we’re passing the vote that it’s an International. I don’t agree with that, I understand the municipality needs a new truck but this type of … I don’t know the terminology to say how this is being sprung on myself as a councillor.”
“Like I said before, public works does not deserve a new vehicle,” he added after the vote.
Following the meeting, Labadie told The Equity that the bid from Inter Outaouais was not available at the caucus meeting, which explains why there was an extended conversation about it during the meeting.
She said that if the municipality needed to go out to tender for multiple vehicles, as a city would for a vehicle fleet, then it would enable the municipality to have more control over vehicle specifications. She also explained that the SEAO tool was put into place following the Charbonneau Commission investigation into public contract corruption across the province.
“As I explained, that is to present corruption and collusion in the bidding process so that I can’t give favouritism because the owner or the CEO of Peterbilt is my brother in law [or something] and I ensure that that company gets all of our bids,” Labadie said.
“Our public works department are the specialists on that, they know exactly what their needs are and they’re the ones who are going to go and do the call to tender, it’s not councillors,” she added. “Councillors are there to ensure that we are spending our public funds correctly and that when the public works team go out to tender that it meets all the needs for that team, but they’re the specialists on this.”
The Equity reached out to Howard to clarify what he meant by his statement that public works employees did not deserve a new vehicle, but he declined to comment further.
