Brian Gallant 'close' friends with 2 key members of Francophonie Games committee

Two friends of former Liberal premier Brian Gallant occupy key positions on the organizing committee of the Jeux de la Francophonie — a committee that is rapidly losing the confidence of political leaders over the ballooning costs of the games.

Eric Larocque, the executive director of the organizing committee, is a personal friend of Gallant, dating back to when they worked together at the University of Moncton student federation.

And Eddie Rutanga, the committee's head of government and community relations, is another close friend of Gallant. He helped introduce the then-premier to his future wife, Karine Lavoie, according to a 2016 profile of Lavoie in the Telegraph-Journal.

Both men are paid employees of the committee, which is made up of federal, provincial and municipal representatives.

Four provincially appointed members of the committee announced late Wednesday they were resigning, saying they no longer had the confidence of the New Brunswick government.

"The team responsible for organizing the games is comprised of qualified and passionate individuals who have, at heart, the well-being of all New Brunswickers," said the statement, signed by Eric Mathieu Doucet, Mirelle Cyr, Eric Cormier and Kim Rayworth.

The statement said the fifth provincial member had resigned for professional reasons.

Gallant recused himself

Last week it emerged that the projected cost of the games, submitted by the committee to the province in the spring, had ballooned from $17 million to $130 million.

Gallant has so far not responded to questions about the soaring price tag. He has refused to comment because, according to a spokesperson, he recused himself from the issue because he was "close" to those involved.

Progressive Conservative Education Minister Dominic Cardy cited the personal links to Gallant in the legislature Wednesday when rebutting Liberal attacks on PC spending cuts.

The previous Liberal government "plowed money into the pockets of the friends of the former premier who now have been unable to organize the Francophonie Games," Cardy said.

Confidence in the committee?

Premier Blaine Higgs suggested to reporters that the federal government create a permanent team of officials to run athletic events of this scale when they are in Canada.

"You shouldn't be learning every time you have an event like this," he said. "Let's not just put a list of warm bodies there. Let's put a functional group in that has a skill set to make that happen."

Even Gallant's former cabinet colleague, Liberal MLA Roger Melanson, wouldn't say Wednesday whether he has confidence in the organizing committee.

"It's not my decision, the question of confidence," Melanson said. "It's the organizing committee's. Certainly when we see the figures go up every time we ask for more details about the business plan, it's worrying."

He said the committee has to reduce the cost of the games "to gain some credibility in this process."

Gallant was in the legislature Tuesday for Question Period but left afterward to catch a flight, a Liberal staffers said. He was not there at all Wednesday.

It's not clear when Gallant recused himself from the Francophonie Games issue.

"Obviously, when matters came to cabinet, he was not part of those conversations," Melanson said Tuesday, though he wasn't able to say precisely when the then-premier stepped away from the issue.

Gallant's involvement in bid

Gallant was involved in the early stages of the bid: he signed a letter to officials with La Francophonie in July 2015, and met with officials who came to evaluate the province's proposal later that year, former Francophonie minister Francine Landry said this week.

And in 2016, he recorded a video as part of the bid presentation that won over the Francophonie officials making the decision.

In the video, Gallant, who grew up in a mixed English-French family, explained he chose to attend French schools as a child so he could compete in the Acadian Games, a decision that also connected to his francophone roots.

L'Acadie Nouvelle called Gallant's presentation a key factor — the "pièce de résistance" — in winning the bid, according to an April 2016 story.

Gallant's office announced the appointment of Larocque as executive director of the organizing committee on April 19, 2016, mere days after New Brunswick won the bid.

The organizing committee's budget this year is $1.7 million. It has 11 employees. Last year, it paid out $452,000 in salaries.

It didn't put taxpayers at risk because we were not going to support that number.- Liberal MLA Roger Melanson

The Francophone Games are open to all athletes from 58 member countries of La Francophonie regardless of the language they speak. The international organization is made up of countries that use or have a historical connection to the French language.

New Brunswick and Quebec are both member governments of the organization.

The New Brunswick organizing committee has five members appointed by the provincial government, four named by Ottawa, and one each from the host cities of Moncton and Dieppe.

Moncton Centre Liberal MLA Rob McKee, a former city councillor who travelled to Abidjan, Ivory Coast, for the 2017 games, said he had confidence in the organizing committee, even after learning last week of the $130 million cost.

"I do," he said. "They've been working very hard over the last year or two. … I have faith that they are doing their work. Obviously I think the price tag is too high."

Melanson said the previous Liberal government didn't make the $130 million figure public before the election because they refused to sign off on it.

"There was never a decision to go forward with that number," he said. "It didn't put taxpayers at risk because we were not going to support that number."