The Laval police do not have a report on the effectiveness of their electric car, which cost nearly $100,000 in public funds, even though they said they bought it specifically to evaluate its performance.
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The mystery thickens around the Ford Mustang Mach-E GT acquired at a high price at the end of 2022 and which the director of the Laval Police Service (SPL), Pierre Brochet, used to get to work for four months.
“We do not have a detailed report on the use of the vehicle during this phase,” admits the head of public affairs for the City of Laval, Philippe Déry, who refers to the period during which Mr. Brochet drove the vehicle. .
Photo Pierre-Paul Poulin
Pierre Brochet, director of the Laval Police Department.
However, last week, in reaction to a report from our Bureau of Investigation, the director of the SPL wrote to his employees to explain that the purchase of the vehicle was necessary “for pilot project purposes to test various elements, notably layout and autonomy based on the equipment required in the vehicle.
“It is particularly expected that […] the pilot vehicle be assigned temporarily, for the testing period, to the director Mr. Brochet since he is the management officer who lives the furthest away,” wrote the director.
If no document exists, Mr. Déry assures that the City’s technical teams “were in contact with the SPL to collect their observations”. However, he is not able to share the observations in question with us.
At the beginning of April, our Investigation Office revealed that the SPL had spent more than $1.5 million to acquire 13 electric cars and 48 charging stations.
Photo from Archives, AGENCE QMI
The Laval police have ordered more than a dozen Mustang Mach-E electric vehicles for members of management. Photo taken at the headquarters of the Laval Police Department, in the Chomedey district, in Laval, on Friday, December 22, 2023. MAXIME DELAND/AGENCE QMI
No call for tenders
Beyond the acquisition price and the nebulous reasons which led to the purchase of the vehicle, the City also chose with whom it would negotiate to obtain this car.
We also discovered that to purchase its Ford Mustang Mach-E GT, the SPL took advantage of an exemption from the City’s regulations which require competitive bidding for any purchase of $25,000 or more.
The police department notably invoked “specific issues for which the City considers that it is not in the public interest to proceed through a competitive process,” we can read in the electronic call system of offers from the Quebec government.
“It was necessary to ensure the availability of the vehicle within the deadlines set by the pilot project,” explains Mr. Déry while adding that the availability of electric cars was limited after the COVID-19 pandemic.
More than $2.4 million
The saga led Mayor Stéphane Boyer to meet with his police chief to ensure that such a situation does not happen again. Auditor General France Lessard is currently evaluating whether she will investigate this matter.
In addition to the nearly $100,000 sports model driven by director Brochet, the SPL will have finally acquired 24 Ford Mustang Mach-Es in their intermediate version at an average price of more than $76,000 per unit, in July 2023.
More than $2.4 million in public funds were necessary for the purchase of cars, charging stations and for development work at police headquarters.
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