The President of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, returned the ball to the Public Procurement Authority (AMP) on Thursday for the monitoring body to investigate the methods of TELUQ University, which uses public funds to delegate educational research work.
“It is precisely the job of the AMP to check, so we will let it do its job if necessary. […] On specific issues like that, it is up to the AMP, the choice to intervene,” declared Mr.me LeBel, whose Treasury Board Secretariat is responsible for the call for tenders processes.
Duty revealed Thursday that TELUQ had used nearly a million dollars from schools to delegate educational research activities to a private company, GECA. A TELUQ call for tenders for services in schools was notably prepared by an education professor, Steve Bissonnette, who had links with the bidders.
Despite this, the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, said he was “not at all” questioning his confidence in TELUQ, whose short programs he often praises for access to the teaching profession. “What TELUQ tells us is that, since the change of administration [en 2018]the contract awarding process has been tightened. And so, I have confidence that TELUQ will enforce the rules for awarding contracts. »
The former general director of TELUQ, Martin Noël, was suspended in July 2018 by the Minister of Higher Education at the time, the liberal Hélène David, due to “irregularities”, some of which linked to the Law on contracts of public bodies.
When it came to power a few months later, the Coalition Avenir Québec then downplayed the matter. The then Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge, affirmed that the file had been “a little inflated under the previous government”. Mr. Noël was also rehabilitated in 2019, and returned to a teaching position at TELUQ.
The call for tenders Duty reported was also signed in 2017 by two directors of TELUQ, Louise Boucher and Caroline Brassard. Mme Brassard was chosen by Minister Drainville in December 2023 to head a committee of experts. Since this committee was mainly supposed to approve training offered by TELUQ, its appointment was criticized by the deans and the opposition, who saw it as a conflict of interest.
“Red flags”
In the National Assembly, Solidarity MP Ruba Ghazal asked the government to investigate this matter.
The office of the Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, believes that it is not up to him to investigate. “One thing is certain: tender processes must be respected. We will not comment on the alleged facts at this time, but if necessary, we will let the competent authorities shed light on it,” wrote press officer Simon Savignac.
The interim Liberal leader, Marc Tanguay, said of the situation at TELUQ that it “raises legitimate questions about compliance with the rules of ethics and transparency.” “A lot of red flags, it’s a case that raises a lot of questions,” he said.
“This is not normal,” also affirmed the PQ leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon. “If we send public funds to a private company with which we have collusion, and we make a profit on that, clearly, public funds are not used for research. It’s a governance problem. This is the job of the government to ensure, in terms of the use of public funds, that the objectives are achieved. »
MP Ghazal said she found “it’s very, very worrying, what’s happening at TELUQ with this researcher.” [Steve Bissonnette] “. “It’s not the first time,” she stressed. “I would like Minister Bernard Drainville and the government – or Pascale Déry – to investigate the situation,” she added. She recalled having previously expressed concerns about short training courses leading to the teaching profession. “What worries me a lot is the quality of the training. And after that, these training courses are based on research like this, which is private,” she said.
The TELUQ short course includes courses on “effective teaching”. Mr. Bissonnette is conducting several research studies on one of its components, “positive behavior support”. He also sells training to schools on this subject through his private company.
