Fireworks are expected in the Quebec legislature this week, when a damning report on corruption in the province's construction industry is moved front and centre.
The report, leaked to the media earlier this month, spelled out how construction firms, criminal groups and civil servants have conspired to drive up the price of public-works projects in Quebec.
The report was met with a storm of public outrage in Quebec, particularly after it alleged that some money raised in the scams is kicked back to political parties.
On Tuesday, the author of that report, the head of the province's new anti-corruption squad, is due to appear before a committee in the national assembly.
It will be the first detailed public grilling for Jacques Duchesneau, the former Montreal police chief who was named to head the new anti-corruption squad. He was appointed by Liberal Premier Jean Charest in response to years of rumours of wrongdoing in the Quebec construction industry.
Duchesneau has said in interviews that the situation in the industry was even worse than he expected.
In his appearance at the legislature on Tuesday, Duchesneau is expected to go into details of his report. His investigation reportedly found numerous flaws in the awarding of government road-construction contracts worth more than $16-billion over the past five years.
Since the report was leaked, Duchesneau has said he is confident the Charest government is serious about cleaning up the industry.
Other Quebecers are do not share his view.
Signalling the anger the issue has stirred in the province, hundreds of people gathered outside the premier's Montreal office on Saturday, demanding an inquiry and calling for his resignation.
Many of them carried brooms, as a signal to clean up government. One man carried a cartoon of Charest with a noose around his neck.
Despite intense pressure, Charest has deflected repeated calls for a full public inquiry.
But the Montreal protesters argued that an independent inquiry is the only way to root out the truth about allegations of links to organized crime and kickbacks to political parties. The money, they said, should be spent on schools and hospitals instead.
According to the leaks of the report, civil servants colluded with construction companies to find loopholes in the tendering process, allowing the firms to charge more for public-works contracts.
The companies, some allegedly tied to the Mob and biker gangs, used some of their profits to make contributions to political parties.
Parti Quebecois Leader Pauline Marois has repeatedly called for a public inquiry, but Charest says the matter is best left to police.
With files from CTV and The Canadian Press
