Expenses scandal: departure of another VP from Port of Montreal

The Port of Montreal has let go of a second vice-president following a controversy over questionable expenses, our Bureau of Investigation has learned.

After the departure of Vice-President of Finance Geneviève Deschamps in October, it is now the turn of Guillaume Brossard, VP development, marketing and international relations, to leave.

The Montreal Port Authority (MPA) confirmed the information, but refused to comment or explain the reasons leading to the end of this employment.

This summer, we revealed that certain Mr. Brossard and M.^me Deschamps had made several questionable purchases, including expensive meals with colleagues.

Mr. Brossard notably spent $316 on his corporate card for a celebratory dinner for a colleague at the Ritz-Carlton during a trip to Geneva. The duo had notably consumed oysters, a lobster roll and cocktails. He had to repay them two years later, after our questions to APM.

The agency’s communications director, Renée Larouche, admitted in an interview with our Bureau of Investigation that Mr. Brossard had made “misguidements.”

“Guillaume should have paid personally,” M explained to us.^me Larouche.

Luxury in Dubai

We also got our hands on an invoice for $377 for a meal, in December 2023, in the United Arab Emirates, between Mr. Brossard and Ms. Deschamps, then interim CEO for COP28. The bill included a bottle of wine at $120, two cocktails at around $30 each. It was Ms. Deschamps who paid with her corporate card.

Former CEO Martin Imbleau, who left Port of Montreal in September 2023, also had many hefty bills. He had to reimburse a $470 minibar bill, again after our questions, even though APM policy prohibited this type of expense.

It was Mr. Imbleau who recruited Guillaume Brossard and Geneviève Deschamps in 2021, with whom he had already worked at Énergir.

The new boss of the APM, Julie Gascon, has since undertaken to revise the office expenses policy and reshuffled the management committee, from which she excluded Mr. Brossard.

The official expenses policy now specifies that an allowance (per diem) limits the amounts spent on meals with colleagues, without clients, while traveling. Alcohol is no longer reimbursed.