I am talking about the contractors, do you really think a legit entrepreneur like Kiewit or EBC is run by mafia? We never heard anything about an infrastructure built by Kiewit having problems so far in Quebec (A25 for exemple, built in time and within budgets). SNC-Lavalin has been corrupted, same as Dessau but I wouldn't call corruption as being run by mafia.
Of course there's a lot of shady things, I worked in that field, I'm a civil engineer and my dad is a contractor too, it is well known that Montreal has a lot of mafia contractors but I would say for the EPCM firms its more due to corruption/ignorance/lack of ethic. But more often it is the contractors who are extremely connected to the mafia, a lot of them are run by italians Montrealers. Some contractors are only there for making quick money and are throwing invoices left and right, trying to put the blame on the client and being dishonest.
But the disaster of Montreal infrastructures is due to the shitty design codes used at the time. Engineers were still engineers back then and the quality of the work had to meet a standard, especially on governmental jobs. The standards used at the time were just not good for the city.
Of course there's a lot of shady things, I worked in that field, I'm a civil engineer and my dad is a contractor too, it is well known that Montreal has a lot of mafia contractors but I would say for the EPCM firms its more due to corruption/ignorance/lack of ethic. But more often it is the contractors who are extremely connected to the mafia, a lot of them are run by italians Montrealers. Some contractors are only there for making quick money and are throwing invoices left and right, trying to put the blame on the client and being dishonest.
But the disaster of Montreal infrastructures is due to the shitty design codes used at the time. Engineers were still engineers back then and the quality of the work had to meet a standard, especially on governmental jobs. The standards used at the time were just not good for the city.