The National Assembly’s ethics commissioner has opened an investigation focused on Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon and a possible conflict of interest on the Bombardier file. Fitzgibbon’s personal investments are under the check. He owns shares in Heroux-Devtek, a company that supplies parts to Bombardier. Fitzgibbon was also on the board of directors for the company but resigned the day after he won a seat at the National Assembly. Fitzgibbon claims his broker is handling his shares and has transferred them from a discretionary account into a blind trust. His holdings are raising questions among opposition MNAs about his management of the Bombardier file. Last week, Bombardier that has been struggling for long announced 5000 layoffs,half of which will be in Quebec alone.
The PQ called on ethics commissioner Ariane Mignolet to investigate and for the CAQ to keep Fitzgibbon away from the Bombardier file for the time being. “Premier Legault, if he wants to be different than the Liberals, they just have one thing to do: just pull back Mr. Fitzgibbon from the case of Bombardier or the case in aeronautics, and just wait until the commissioner says ‘Ok everything is fine. Everything is ok,’” said PQ MNA Martin Ouellet.
Fitzgibbon said he welcomes an investigation because he’s convinced he hasn’t done anything wrong. “There are rigid rules that have been set by the ethics commissioner, and all these rules are respected. So too bad that the opposition feels that way, but I don’t care. I am at the right place, and I am going to be helpful for these employees,” he said.
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