If you’ve paid a municipal fine in the last five years, there’s a good chance more than half of that didn’t make it into the MRC’s coffers.
The MRC Pontiac sent out a press release in March detailing the fact that it had been defrauded of more than $170,000 from January of 2012 to August of 2017.
The money was taken out of a fund administered by law firm RPGL Avocats for municipal fines on behalf of the MRC.
It was recently revealed that the $170,000 came out of a fund that totaled more than $284,000.
That amounts to 59 per cent of the total amount of money owed to the municipality from fines.
How is it possible that nobody noticed that the MRC was short $170,000 from a pool of more than $284,000?

It appears as though the alleged fraudster – Colette Morrissette – forged signatures and falsified documents in order to get away with the fraud.
For instance, if the MRC was owed $2,000 for municipal fines, she would allegedly change the documents, forge the signature of one of the law firm’s partners and deposit some of the $2,000 in the MRC account and the rest in her own.
Roger Paradis, one of the partners at RPGL, said he was floored when he discovered the fraud. He was even more shocked when he found out the amount that had been defrauded because the firm didn’t have insurance.
He said that as a result of the fraud, he’s had to delay his retirement.
He was especially taken aback because he said RPGL trusted Morrissette so much. She had been working at the firm since 2001.
It’s unfortunate that the actions of one person can have such a wide-ranging impact.
The MRC is now re-evaluating how it will process municipal fines going forward. RPGL is also undertaking a review to make sure this never happens again.
But the damage has been done.
Many residents will rightly question whether the money they pay for fines is actually going to the MRC.
The MRC will understandably give more scrutiny to who it chooses to process these fines.
And RPGL will have trouble placing the same amount of trust in another employee.
In a small community where people pride themselves on the fact that their word is their bond, its too bad that an incident like this will erode people’s trust in one another.
It’s getting harder and harder to find the kind of person whose handshake is all that’s needed to know they’re trustworthy.
As much as RPGL has egg on its face, this incident doesn’t look good on the MRC either.
In the fourth poorest region in Quebec – where some municipalities have trouble getting payment for property taxes – the MRC needs as much money as possible.
To lose out on $170,000 is one thing, but for that money to represent nearly 60 per cent of the total amount owed is something else entirely.
That amount of missing money should have been caught by someone.
But credit where credit is due: The MRC issued a press release detailing the fraud. It’s unclear how easy it would have been for local media to find out about the fraud had the MRC not come forward with the announcement.
But admitting to something embarrassing – or handing out back slaps for discovering the fraud – doesn’t forgive the fact that it happened in the first place.
The MRC has committed to more oversight of the municipal fine payment program, which is a good thing.
Hopefully, they’ll be as forthcoming with the new set of rules as they were with the discovery of the fraud.

Chris Lowrey