The PNGTS Extension project is a TQM project: TQM has filed the application for certification with the National Energy Board, and TQM will own and operate the pipeline upon its completion.
Note, however, that TQM is 50-percent owned by Gaz Metropolitain, which is also the PNGTS Extension project manager. They are responsible for designing the pipeline route and negociating with landowners.
In addition to owning 50-percent of TQM, Gaz Metropolitain also has an 80-percent controlling interest in Societe en Commendite Gaz Metropolitain.
Societe en Commendite Gaz Metropolitain, in turn, owns:
Gaz Metropolitain itself is 40-percent owned by Hydro Quebec. On January 13th, 1997 Hydro Quebec announced a $309 million payout for a 40-percent controlling stake in Noverco, Inc. Noverco, Inc. controls Gaz Metropolitain 100-percent.
Hydro Quebec borrowed the money from the Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, the Quebec government agency managing old-age and public-sector pension funds.
At the same time it lent Hydro Quebec the money to purchase 40-percent of Noverco, the Caisse paid $291 million for 38-percent of Noverco, a share formally held by SOQUIP, another Quebec government agency.
Where did that $291 million go? According to an article in The Gazette (Montreal, 14 January 1997) the money would be turned over to "the cash- strapped government of Parti-Quebecois Premier Lucien Bouchard".
As the PNGTS Extension Project manager, Gaz Metropolitain hired Janin Corporation to design and build the pipeline. The promotors hyped Janin as the company that bored tunnels through the Swiss alps, but later balked at following the pipeline route favored by local government and landowners alike because there was "too much rock".
Janine hired Urgel Delisle & Associes, engineering consultants, to design the route and do the environmental assessment. Their volumnous "assessment" was nothing more than a rationale for taking the route they selected.
Forum Communications performed the avant garde representation of the project to landowners. Its public presentations were poorly organized and rife with misinformation. They fulfilled the function of a 'heat shield' for the promotes.
Poisson, Bazinet et Associes were charged with keeping landowner compensation to a minimum. Their agents spread misinformation among landowners and community, tried to pit neighbors against neighbors, and bullied elderly landowners into woefully inadequate compensation.