Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's involvement with the BDC's $615,000 loan: The Grand Mère affair and Chretien's golf course just prior to the loan's approval
Nipawin - December 5, 2000 - by: Mario deSantis
Chretien owns 25%	We left the wheeling dealing of the Grand Mère's affair with Mr. Duhaime owning, just on
	paper, the operation of the hotel which includes now the building and an acreage as well. So
	our Chrétien's friend, Mr. Duhaime, bought in 1993 the operation of the hotel for $225,000
	by obtaining a $225,000 government-backed small business loan from the local caisse populaire.
	And again in 1994, Mr. Duhaime buys the hotel building and acreage for another $225,000
	by borrowing from the caisse populaire. In 1996, Mr. Duhaime borrows more money and
	spends more than $800,000 to build a banquet hall to be used by the hotel and by the patrons
	of the golf course. As at this time, Mr. Jean Chretien owns 25% share of the golf course.
avoid bankruptcy	In 1996, the caisse populaire is owed $890,000 and threatens Mr. Duhaime to foreclose his
	loans. So, we are in 1996 with Mr. Duhaime desperately looking for any available friend and
	opportunity to save his assets and avoid bankruptcy. The saga of the Grand Mère's affair
	continues as documented by the major national news organizations, and I will cover only a
	small window of Mr. Chretien's governmental handouts to his friends charged with criminal
	conduct. The events outlined below have retained, as much as possible, the same English
	construct as per the original references.
$2-million	1996: On April 12, Chretien phones Francois Beaudoin, then president of the
	federally owned Business Development Bank of Canada
	(BDC), about a $2-million loan sought by Duhaime(1).
	Mr. Chrétien informs Mr. Beaudoin that Mr. Duhaime would
	soon apply for a loan for an expansion project and that he
	needed help because chartered banks considered his project
	too risky. Mr. Duhaime met with BDC officials for the first
	time a week later.
Mr. Chrétien was very interested	1996: Mr. Chrétien again raised the subject of the inn expansion project with Mr.
	Beaudoin on May 29, 1996, during a meeting at 24 Sussex
	Drive, the Prime Minister's official residence. One source with
	knowledge of the meeting has stated that it was obvious that
	Mr. Chrétien was very interested in the project and he wanted
	to see the BDC finance it(2)
$1.5-million plan	1996: On September 16, 1996, Mr. Duhaime's initial loan application was
	rejected by the BDC bank because his inn's financial situation
	was too bleak and his business expansion plans failed to meet
	basic lending criteria established by the bank. It was then that
	Mr. Duhaime scaled down his original $3.5-million expansion
	project and resubmitted a $1.5-million plan. France Bergeron,
	the BDC's regional branch manager, turned down Mr.
	Duhaime's first loan application and later declined to approve a
	mortgage loan for a scaled-back project, saying, the global risk
	for the BDC is very high(3)
Claude Gauthier	1996: September. A company owned by Chrétien's friend and Liberal supporter
	Claude Gauthier buys a parcel of land adjacent to the golf
	course for $525,000. At this time, Chrétien is the owner of the
	25% share of the golf course, a share which Chrétien will sell
	later in October 1999. With this land purchase, Claude
	Gauthier improved the course's troubled finances, and we will
	see how Gauthier was rewarded later for being a friend of Mr.
	Chrétien.
	In the next related article we will cover the BDC bank approval of a loan of $615,000 to Mr.
	Duhaime.
------------References/endnotes:
	List of relevant political and economics articles http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign
	The author acknowledges the following news organizations: National Post, Canadian Internet Network, The Ottawa Citizen, The Globe and Mail, Canadian Press. The author read articles written by Robert Fife, Andrew McIntosh, Joël-Denis Bellavance, Peter Shawn Taylor, Andrew Coyne, Gordon Gibson, and Diane Francis of the National Post; Paul Adams and Daniel LeBlanc of The Globe and Mail; Lawrence Martin and Kate Jaimet of The Ottawa Citizen.
1. - - - - -	Mr. Chrétien's call of April 12, 1996 and two more calls to Mr. Beaudoin were secretly kept till November 2000 when Mr. Chrétien couldn't keep the secret anymore. In fact, Mr. Beaudoin filed a statement of claims for wrongful dismissal against the BDC. The involvement of Mr. Chrétien in the hotel's affair, led Stockwell Day and Joe Clark, in November 2000, to ask for a possible criminal investigation by the RCMP, and for an investigation by the ethics councillor Harold Wilson.
2. - - -	Ethics boss: no rules, no foul, National Post, November 22, 2000. On or about November 20, 2000, Mr. Chrétien stated that when he made the phone calls to the BDC, in 1996 and 1997, he no longer had a financial interest in the hotel. However, at the time of these phone calls to the president of the BDC, Mr. Chrétien was a part-owner of the golf course.
3.	PM lobbied for disputed loan, Andrew McIntosh, November 16, 2000, National Post