SNC boss backs bid by Bombardier
Suggests no tenders for metro contract
NICOLAS VAN PRAET, The Gazette
Published: Thursday, March 02, 2006
SNC-Lavalin chief executive Jacques Lamarre, whose company manages three of Montreal's commuter train lines, suggested yesterday the Quebec government should short-circuit the tender process and award Bombardier Inc. the contract to supply $1.3-billion worth of new subway cars for the Montreal metro.
SNC has won all but one of the global mass-transit projects listed on its website through open bidding, an official with the Montreal engineering company said. The only exception was a contract in Beijing.
But Lamarre said the Quebec government has the duty to put aside a public tender process if doing so means it can help develop home-grown industry.
"It would be terrible not to develop local businesses in going to tender," Lamarre told reporters after a speech to members of the Conseil des relations internationales de Montreal.
"Bottom line, if it doesn't develop local businesses, it's not good. (The government) would be better of treating this in an honest and direct way, and to do it really within the context of the long-term development of local businesses."
Lamarre said the government has to create jobs.
Laurent Beaudoin, chairperson and chief executive of Montreal-based Bombardier Inc., the only train carbody maker headquartered in Quebec, last week defended the idea of giving Bombardier the contract without tender, arguing such one-on-one deals are not uncommon.
French-based energy and
transportation company Alstom, which had a train plant in Point St. Charles until 2003, has called for bids. The company has a strong presence in the province it says justifies a crack at the contract. Alstom lost a contract to Bombardier two years ago to build commuter trains for Montreal's regional transportation agency.
The Quebec government has the right to bypass the open tender process and pick any supplier. Former Quebec economic development minister Claude Bechard, who holds a new cabinet post as of this week, has said he wants the contract to go to Bombardier, which has a rail plant in Bechard's riding.
Lamarre noted that many governments worldwide deliberately bolster their local companies by awarding them government procurement contracts directly.
"So, why not Quebec?"
SNC spokesperson Gillian MacCormack said it is very common in the engineering and construction business for repeat clients to approach SNC directly and ask them to handle a new project instead of opening the contract to bids.
Bombardier won the initial contract to build the 336 metro cars, in the early 1970s.
Montreal's transit authority and Transport Quebec have said they could begin accepting bids for the replacement cars in 2007.
nvanpraet@thegazette.canwest.com
© The Gazette (Montreal) 2006