Can't You Ask SNC-Lavalin To Do It?

This:

Quebec is asking the federal government to close a popular, unofficial border crossing south of Montreal because the province can’t handle the number of asylum seekers entering the country, but refugee advocates are rejecting Quebec’s claims.

(Sidebar: keep in mind that those claiming that they need asylum have lived comfortable lives in the US for several years before being deported.)

More than 100 refugee claimants are entering Quebec every day from the United States through a rural path called Roxham Road, Premier Francois Legault told reporters Wednesday.

“It’s unacceptable,” Legault said at the legislature. “It’s impossible because we don’t have the capacity.”

The federal government takes 14 months to study an asylum claim and in the meantime, Quebec has to house and care for would-be refugees and school their children, the premier said.

“We cannot afford to give services,” Legault said, adding that if the current pace continues, Quebec will not have adequate housing for 36,000 new arrivals.

 

Oh, wait: 

Quebec prosecutors have received court approval for a deferred prosecution agreement with Canadian engineering giant SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., the first such deal since the new legal mechanism became law in 2018.

Judge Éric Downs of the Quebec Superior Court sanctioned the agreement in a verbal decision on Wednesday afternoon, thereby settling criminal charges against the company related to a bridge contract in Montreal two decades ago. The judge said he would publish a detailed written decision later.

“We’ve reached a point now where this company has an integrity program that’s exemplary,” prosecutor Francis Pilotte said. “There really was no reason not to offer them an agreement. [The law] was made for cases like this.”

SNC-Lavalin struck the remediation agreement with Quebec’s office of criminal prosecutions, known as the Directeur des poursuites criminelles et pénales (DPCP), to resolve charges laid last fall against two company entities. The pact required court approval.

Such deals, better known as deferred prosecution agreements, allow companies to acknowledge responsibility and avoid a trial in exchange for paying a fine and agreeing to outside independent oversight. Already present in several other countries, such as the United States and the U.K., the legal mechanism was introduced by the federal government in 2018 as part of an effort to widen its options in fighting corruption and other white-collar crime.