CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY CORRUPTION

Gutsy and impressive. How else can you describe the collapse of a floor of a new building yesterday in Waterloo, Ontario ? The building afterall was a new police headquarters. The story coming out is that welds holding steel beams together weren't up to par. Apparently when these beams were stressed by the pouring of concrete, the welds gave way. Isn't that just unbelieveable? I wonder if we'll ever get the full story?

Good old Quebec is at it again. Many months ago a Quebec politician publicly suggested that Quebec was the most corrupt province in Canada. Outrage followed from within Quebec but unsurprisingly not from outside Quebec. At the moment a Quebec task force is investigating "...the role of engineering-consulting firms in wider scandals over collusion, kickbacks, political financimng and money laundering that have raged at the provincial and local level." This quote is from a Waterloo Region Record story of May 10/12 titled "Execs being investigated were among party donors.". Apparently the Federal Conservatives were the biggest recipients of financial donations from these engineering-consuklting firms although the Liberals also received donations.

I guess the moral is that it's O.K. to hand out bribes and kickbacks , just be careful who you leave off your Christmas list. This reminds me of the allegations ongoing with Wall Mart in the U.S. Allegedly they were asked to hand out kickbacks to Mexican authorities in order to expand and build in Mexico. Apparently some spoilsport who was missed ratted everybody out. Remember the golden rule of corruption. It must be that all parties to sweetheart deals, bribes or kickbacks must be happy as well as anyone else who finds out about it.