Pierre Poilievre the Conservative finance critic and MP for Nepean—Carleton has publicly called out Justin Trudeau’s stance on the SNC-Lavalin affair.
Poilievre has been a vocal critic of the federal government's handling of the political interference fiasco.
According to Poilievre "the Prime Minister claims that if he’d allowed SNC to face criminal conviction, the company would go out of business because corporate criminals are banned from federal contracts."
1/3 The Prime Minister claims that if he’d allowed SNC to face criminal conviction, the company would go out of business because corporate criminals are banned from federal contracts. False. https://t.co/yWEGF9lNaD
— pierrepoilievre (@PierrePoilievre) February 26, 2019
Interestingly, the finance critic found that to be hard to accept, given the exemption SNC was given while facing criminal charges, as well as the recent policy changes the Liberals put forward which would safeguard even a convicted SNC.
This includes potential changes to ethical procurement rules that stipulate how long a company can be banned from bidding on federal contracts.
2/3 In Dec 2015, the gov exempted SNC from a contracting ban, despite criminal charges[see proof]. Now the gov is changing the policy to exempt SNC even if it is convicted. Given the PM plans to allow SNC to get contracts—even after a conviction—why did he need to prevent trial? pic.twitter.com/G2lZdzjmbP
— pierrepoilievre (@PierrePoilievre) February 26, 2019
In turn, Poilievre concludes that the "PM’s motive was not to protect jobs" but rather "to protect influential execs & shareholders."
3/3 That is proof the PM’s motive was not to protect jobs—he could have done that without shelving charges against SNC. His motive was to protect influential execs & shareholders.
— pierrepoilievre (@PierrePoilievre) February 26, 2019
Background on SNC-Lavalin
SNC-Lavalin currently employs 8,762 in Canada(a large portion of which reside in Quebec), alongside 50,000 in the world. It is also one of the world premiere engineering firms, and for a significant portion of time was considered one of Canada's crown jewels.
The company has sought a deferred prosecution agreement with the government as a means to avoid criminal charges. The Globe and Mail has suggested that the Prime Minister's Office improperly pressured the former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to intervene in this way.
The firm now makes up a significant percentage of the world bank's banned list, in 2013 out of the 117 Canadian firms banned from by the world bank, SNC and its affiliates made up 115 of the firms.
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