Snow removal contracts: Montreal will have to compensate a company
The City of Montreal will have to compensate a snow removal company, whose tenders had been refused in 2018 and 2020, although the latter offered competitive rates.
The City then preferred to enter into negotiations with the company Transvrac, thus abandoning the proposals of the contractor TMD.
Repeating the decision of the Superior Court, the Quebec Court of Appeal ruled that “the City failed in its 'legal and contractual obligations, it is neither transparent nor fair, and sells its contracts'”, reports La Presse. “Taking advantage of two methods of awarding a contract simultaneously is clearly not compatible with the purpose of the public call for tenders process”, justifies the Court of Appeal of Quebec.
The City would have escaped this sanction if it had withdrawn the calls for tenders for which the TMD company had come forward, before starting negotiations with Transvrac. It will have to pay $1.99 million in compensation, an amount that corresponds to the profits that TMD would have made if the contracts had returned to it.
The City of Montreal has not commented on this decision and has not explained why it proceeded in this way. A TVA article, published in 2019, reports fines and complaints filed by citizens against TMD for professional negligence during work carried out in the east of Montreal, notes La Presse< /em>.
