The leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ) Éric Duhaime, who was recently the subject of collection measures for unpaid municipal and school taxes, has also already had a run-in with Hydro-Québec for non-payment of his bill. .
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In 2012, the then radio host told his listeners that Hydro had disconnected him because he had not paid his due for a year and a half.
“Look, I have my responsibilities, I should have paid. It’s been a year and a half since I paid my Hydro account,” he said on the airwaves of the defunct Radio X Montreal station.
At the time, Duhaime blamed the state corporation.
“They could have told me. They could have come to see that after a year and a half, if they sent something to a box that didn’t work, that maybe they should have sent me a letter by post,” said -he.
The one who would become a candidate for the post of Prime Minister a decade later seemed to regret, at the time, not having been able to pay his Hydro bill with a credit card.
“We are hostages to a monopoly that does what it wants, that doesn’t give a damn about its customers,” he grumbled about Hydro-Quebec.
The audio extract has since been available on the website The club of the badly quoted, by host Olivier Niquet.
Last Friday, our Bureau of Investigation revealed that the City of Quebec was claiming from the leader of the PCQ more than $14,000 in unpaid taxes on two buildings.
Mr. Duhaime first explained that he was unaware of his debt and that it was his tenant who had to pay the municipal taxes. He quickly settled the bill.
On Saturday, he made a mea culpa. “It doesn’t absolve me of responsibility. I am the owner of the building and I am responsible for ensuring that the taxes are paid. I take full responsibility, I am accountable,” he said.
Then, on Monday, La Presse revealed that the Center for School Services in the Capital had to send a bailiff to his home to obtain payment of $ 2,411 in unpaid school taxes, in July 2021.