Death of Jacques Daoust: his career in 10 key moments

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Jean Balthazard

Wednesday, 26 July 2017 17:14

UPDATE
Thursday, August 3, 2017 10:25

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The former minister of Transport of Québec, Jacques Daoust, est died this Thursday, a few days after having suffered a stroke. During his political career, he has had to deal with many sensitive issues. Back on this course and his personal life.

1) Born February 17, 1948 in Verdun, Jacques Daoust received a bachelor of arts at the University of Montreal and a bachelor’s degree in business administration at the École des hautes commerciales de Montréal (HEC). Add to all that, a master’s degree in business administration at the University Laval.

2) He was appointed in 2006 as president and chief executive officer of Investissement Québec, a position he will hold until 2013.

3) He is elected on April 7, 2014 as a member of parliament in Verdun under the banner of the liberal Party of Quebec. It inherits two weeks later, on April 23, the function of the minister of Economy, Innovation and Exports.

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4) The investigation office of the Journal de Montréal revealed in 2015 as the liberal minister Jacques Daoust and his son have bagged a grant of$ 5,000 from the Quebec government in may 2014 to a vineyard that they own since the end of 2012. The spokesperson of the minister at the time, Melissa Turgeon, did not find it contradictory that the latter will be awarded a grant for his vineyard. The amount was however, paid a few months before Mr. Daoust denounces the companies constantly on the lookout for grants. “The State can no longer afford to play santa. The father Christmas is on the 25th of December. And on the 25th of December, the offices of my department are closed,” he said in an interview with the newspaper The Sun, at the end of September 2014.

5) A folder that had caused much ink to flow to the end of 2015, it is the investment of one billion u.s. dollars in Bombardier and the C-Series. Jacques Daoust was still minister of the Economy at the moment and he has suffered a lot of criticism on the part of the population and the opposition.

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The president of Bombardier Alain Bellemare and the ex-minister Jacques Daoust to the ceremonies surrounding the delivery of the first aircraft C-Series.

6) After a passage more or less succeeded to the Ministry of the Economy, Jacques Daoust was appointed to the post of minister of Transport, sustainable Mobility and the Electrification of transport in January 2016.

7) It is assigned upon arrival the mandate to resolve the difficult issue of Uber, which had not been set by his predecessor, Robert Poëti. At the outset, it makes the service illegal in Quebec, but he will walk back and forth between others because of the pressure of the young liberals. In may 2016, it proposes a pilot project that would force the company to own taxi permits.

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8) The summer of 2016 isn’t any rest for the minister, as a parliamentary committee, the investigator Annie Trudel and the internal auditor, Louise Boily, who are responsible for reviewing the process of granting contracts in the ministry of Transport, state that there has been intimidation, falsification of documents, and culture of secrecy within the ministry, under the leadership of Jacques Daoust.

Simon Clark/QMI Agency

9) Jacques Daoust was not the end of his troubles, because in August 2016, the documents revealed that his former chief of staff has authorized the liquidation of the 11.1 million shares of the State held in Rona, sold in the u.s., Lowe s. The minister had always pleaded his ignorance. Philippe Couillard has been disturbed by such information, to the point where he did not want to reiterate his confidence in Mr. Daoust. It is too much for him. He left political life in mid-August 2016. It has not prevented the ethics commissioner of the blame, a month later, in September, to be placed in a situation of conflict of interests during the process of adoption in 2016 of the draft law on the wines of quebec.

Simon Clark/QMI Agency

10) A political career of only two years was strong in controversy. Even in 2017, Jacques Daoust is found again in beautiful bed linen. On April 6, Michael Nguyen of the Journal de Montréal, we learned that the ex-leader of RER Hydro, Imad Hamad, asks for $ 19 million since he holds him responsible for the bankruptcy of the company that specializes in turbines.