Achi news desk-
Quebec’s Minister of Internal Security, François Bonnardel, paid a private communications agency $1,375 to write one of his speeches.
The deal was revealed Tuesday by Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) Jennifer McCarron during an investigation into the budget allowances of the Ministry of Internal Security, which is an exercise in accountability.
“Mr. Minister, do you have press attachments?” asked McCarron, saying that she thought it was “intriguing”, to say the least, that a minister would outsource the writing of the speech to the private sector.
The speech in question was about Bill 14 for the modernization of the police, which was received on October 3 and approved two days later.
“Yes, one,” replied Bonnerdel, referring to his political attache Maxim Belanger.
Macron went on to say that she was “astounded” to learn from the books that the minister called Montreal’s Media Agency Press to write the speech.
“Don’t your press attachés write speeches for you?” she asked. “I write my speeches alone, I don’t have a press annex, (…) but did you pay someone to write this speech for you?”
The liberal politician added that the contract was concluded by mutual agreement, meaning without a call for tenders.
“I suppose all the press attachments were busy?” she continued.
Bonnerdel claimed that the order was not made by his office but by the communication branch of the office.
“There is a difference,” he said.
“That’s still a lot of money, $1,375 to write a speech,” McCarron replied. “Maybe you should hire more press officers. I don’t know.”
— This Canadian Press report was first published in French on April 24, 2024.
