BlackRock, SNC & The Infrastructure Bank: Meet the Global Construction Cartel

When the Canadian government entered into an agreement with BlackRock in 2017, what occurred was a partnership with the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB). In doing so, Canada became affiliated with the world construction cartel. Key players in SNC Lavalin, the newly-minted CIB, and the Privy Council are developers of the social economy, a complex scheme to fleece Canada.

Considering the key players involved, some of the CIB funding is likely going to support infrastructure overseas to back the construction cartel (26). This is a funding resource for SNC because they have been barred from bidding on World Bank projects. The CIB is wealth transfer diverting Canadian tax dollars and pension funds to third-world countries to build their infrastructure, create jobs, and stimulate their economy. Let’s have a look at the current CIB board members. We will see how they overlap through government, business, and foundations.

Bruno Guilmette served as interim Chief Investment Officer of Canada Infrastructure Bank, where he established the organization’s initial investment policies and processes (1). Previously, he served on the Executive Committee and Board of the Global Infrastructure Investor Association (GIIA). The GIIA plans and delivers a program of global advocacy and stakeholder engagement that promotes global private investment in infrastructure(2)(3). Rapid income growth across developing countries, as well as rapid urbanization, is driving enormous demand for infrastructure investment that is vital to their country’s future economic growth. However, many of these emerging economies are stuck on the same question: how do we pay for this?

Worldwide investment in infrastructure needs to average $3.3 trillion a year to support global economic growth aspirations and provide citizens with essential services (2).

Government budgets are being strained by public debt, but according to most estimates there is more than $1 trillion in private sector capital available from millions of individual citizens in the form of pension funds (4). Institutional investors and bank assets could also “partially support infrastructure projects”, with 87% of these funds originating from advanced economies (2). As is described in this article written by the GIIA, Canada’s Infrastructure Bank is setting up the guidelines for the procurement of money for these global infrastructure programs (4):

Two countries that are succeeding in unlocking this dry powder (pension funds) are Australia and Canada. They have invested in a specialist central resource (Infrastructure Bank) to gather and share best practices for procuring bodies, thereby building a capability to identify the pipeline of infrastructure requirements and the tool kit of financial models to procure them.

Therefore, Trudeau’s Infrastructure Bank, promoted by the Liberals as a tool for developing infrastructure projects within Canada, was an out-right lie to Canadians. Infrastructure development, jobs, and the economic growth that comes with it was never intended to service the needs of Canadians, but rather to benefit global construction companies and citizens of third-world economies! Companies such as SNC-Lavalin were the only ones awarded contracts and half of these contracts were funding for work outside Canada (5).

Who better to help implement this “Global Infrastructure Bank” than Bruno Guilmette(6)? Guilmette not only served on the Global Infrastructure and Investment Association (GIIA) board, but also as the Senior Vice-President of Infrastructure at PSP Investments, Canada’s largest pension investment managers (7). Mr. Guilmette also served as the Senior Director of Investments & Infrastructure at the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (6), the Quebec Pension Plan that is the largest shareholder of SNC-Lavalin (8). Caisse de dépôt et placement du Quebec even procured a contract with Canada Infrastructure Bank to build a rail system in Montreal, and SNC-Lavalin received the funding (9)(10)(11):

And it’s true that SNC-Lavalin’s largest shareholder is the Quebec public-service pension fund, whose pet project is a light-rail network, whose main construction contractor is SNC-Lavalin. And it’s true that the head of the pension fund pushed hard for the federal government to set up an Infrastructure Bank whose only investment to date… was in the light-rail network promoted by the pension fund that is SNC’s biggest investor and which, in turn, is the rail project’s biggest contractor.

Bruno Guilmette also has other ties to SNC-Lavalin and they include:

• Bruno Guilmette is director of Boralex Inc. (6)(14). Alain Rheaume, who is on the board of directors of SNC-Lavalin, is also board of directors for Boralex Inc. (15).

• Bruno Guilmette is on the board of Avi Alliance (6), which is a subsidiary of Hochtief (an international construction services provider). Hochtief has partnered with SNC-Lavalin on infrastructure contracts (16).

Billions of dollars of Canadian taxpayer money is being poured into SNC-Lavalin (5). The World Bank has also listed SNC-Lavalin as an ineligible firm to receive funding for contracts due to allegations of fraud and corruption (27). This being the case, was the Infrastructure Bank set up to fund the corrupt construction cartels? A bigger question is, how much of the $35 billion of the $186 billion in contracts already pledged has SNC have been signed with the Infrastructure Bank? Another issue concerning SNC, is that taxpayers may be on liable if “forecasts prove inaccurate, projects fail, or costs otherwise accrue above and beyond what was expected (25).”

Blackrock, a US-based asset management company overseeing $5.1 trillion in investments (17), reported on February 8, 2018 that it was raising $10 billion in private equity funds and that it would seek a private commitment from sovereign wealth funds (e.g. pension funds) and other institutional investors, to set up a fund called “BlackRock Alternative Investments” (18)(19). Heading up this project was Andre Bourbonnais, who was Senior Managing Director of the CPP Investment Board and Global Head of Investment Partnerships (2010-2015). Before that, he worked for Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec (2004-2010)(20). The current president of Canada Infrastructure Bank, Pierre Lavallee, worked for Andre Bourbonais in 2012 at CPP Investment Board as VP for Investment Partnerships (12).

What exactly is the “BlackRock Alternative Investments” fund? Social economy is often referred to as the “alternative economy”, a global movement powered by corporations and their foundations to promote communism (21). This raises several questions: Is Canada’s Infrastructure Bank managed by BlackRock? Does BlackRock have controlling interest in this bank? And will this bank be used to fund the social economy (17)? The connections between these pension boards, corporations, and the president and directors of the Canada Infrastructure Bank warrant public scrutiny.

New evidence reveals that BlackRock’s role in the Canada Infrastructure Bank may have also included advising on key personnel including Pierre Lavallee, the current president of Canada Infrastructure Bank (22). Trudeau consulted BlackRock extensively for the $35 billion investment in the new bank which critics say will put the interests of investors ahead of Canadian Taxpayers (23). After all, BlackRock’s fiduciary responsibility is to its clients and not Canadian taxpayers, pension investors, or consumers. Moreover, the Paradise Papers include 9 companies connected to the BlackRock Group. These are tax havens that contribute to income inequality, benefiting wealthy corporations at the expense of taxpayers (17).

This year’s election should definitely not focus on the dairy cartel and supply management, for that is but a smoke screen when compared to the billions of dollars at stake in the hands of the construction cartel and its influence on Canada Infrastructure Bank. It is a cartel which includes not only SNC-Lavalin, but many other corporations operating in Quebec, including those supporting members of the People’s Party of Canada. Out of 34 corporations that donated to Maxime Bernier, 21 were related to the construction industry. After all, the Beauce is a lot more than just dairy! One thing is certain, Canada is no longer a sovereign state but rather being run like a corporation, whereby the rights of citizens are being left at the wayside in favour of the globalist agenda. Canadians were never informed, never consulted, nor did we vote for this. We are indeed living under Canada Inc. (24).

Continue reading “The Criminal Cartel of the Canada Infrastructure Bank Board“.

Update:

BlackRock Becomes Key Player in Crisis Response for Trump and the Fed

References:

1. https://cib-bic.ca/en/board-of-directors/
2. http://giia.net/infrastructure/
3. http://giia.net/we-need-to-act-together-to-deliver-better-infrastructure/
4. http://giia.net/author/tim-horan/
5. https://www.thepostmillennial.com/feds-spend-4-2-billion-in-borrowed-money-since-snc-lavalin-scandal-broke/
6. https://cib-bic.ca/en/board-of-directors/bruno-guilmette/
7. https://www.investpsp.com/en/
8. https://montrealgazette.com/business/snc-lavalin-has-made-remarkable-progress-caisse-ceo-says
9. https://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/canada-the-show/
10. https://www.cdpq.com/en/news/pressreleases/canada-infrastructure-bank-invests-in-reseau-express-metropolitain-project-with
11. http://www.snclavalin.com/en/reseau-express-metropolitain-rem-canada-engineering-procurement-construction
12. https://www.linkedin.com/in/pierre-lavall%C3%A9e-473b0b4/?originalSubdomain=ca
13. https://web.archive.org/web/20160326002325/www.cppib.com/en/what-we-do/investment-partnerships.html.
14. https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruno-guilmette-12270445/?originalSubdomain=ca
15. http://www.snclavalin.com/en/about-us/board-directors/alain-rheaume.aspx
16. https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/0416-city-lavalin
17. https://nupge.ca/content/canada-infrastructure-bank-promoter-involved-tax-havens
18. https://privatecapitaljournal.com/blackrock-raise-us-10b-long-term-private-equity-fund/
19. https://privatecapitaljournal.com/blackrock-recruits-another-senior-cppib-executive/
20. https://www.linkedin.com/in/andre-bourbonnais-3a063519/.
21. https://www.civilianintelligencenetwork.ca/2019/02/18/soros-tides-foundation-and-the-ppc/
22. https://blackrocktransparencyproject.org/2018/08/27/how-canadas-infrastructure-bank-was-created-by-and-set-up-to-benefit-blackrock/
23. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/liberals-gave-investors-extraordinary-control-over-infrastructure-bank-opposition/article34910106/
24. https://www.civilianintelligencenetwork.ca/2019/03/01/johanne-mennie-deep-mysteries-deep-state/
25. https://pressprogress.ca/why-the-liberal-governments-infrastructure-bank-is-helping-big-banks-and-dumping-user-fees-on-citizens/
26. https://www.civilianintelligencenetwork.ca/2019/03/03/soros-trudeau-snc-the-canada-investment-bank/
27. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/snc-lavalin-agrees-to-10-year-ban-from-world-bank-projects-1.1316719