A French company, 30% owned by the Canadian fund Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, is involved in a case of favoritism which is shaking up the hotel and catering sector in France.
In July 2021, while the Siaci Saint Honoré group and the Burrus group announce their intention to create an independent European leader in insurance brokerage and consulting services, Diot Siaci, the Council of the Teachers’ Pension Plan ‘Ontario (Ontario Teachers’) announced the acquisition of a 30% stake in the combined group, becoming the largest institutional shareholder alongside BPI France. A sensitive investment.
Especially since Diot Siaci has been, for several weeks, at the center of an astonishing affair, the origins of which go back several years. In France, at the beginning of the 2010s, Malakoff Humanis and Klésia and OCIRP were designated co-insurers of the HCR (hotels, cafés and restaurants) health plan. The Colonna group is then designated broker and manager, and Axa reinsurer.
Klesia and Malakoff Humanis prepare the ground for Diot Siaci
In 2015, the provident institutions (Klesia and Malakoff Humanis) decided to shatter the governance of the plans. Two years later, the same institutions became both clients and insurers.
At the beginning of the 2020s, while the management agreement becomes a strategic subject for the institutions, in June 2022, Colonna is summoned by the institutions, who present to her the conditions for renewing the management agreements. In nine days, the institutions terminated the Colonna management agreements, without putting forward any real cause.
What does this have to do with Diot Siaci? During the period of renegotiation of management agreements, it was Alain Missoffe, then deputy general manager at Klésia, who was in charge. In April 2022, while discussions were at a standstill, Alain Missoffe became deputy general director of Diot-Siaci.
A tailor-made call for tenders
However, in January 2023, Klésia and Malakoff Humanis chose a new health services manager, following an opaque call for tenders. It is Diot Siaci, led by Cédric Charpentier and co-chaired by Pierre Donnersberg and Christian Burrus, which replaces the Colonna group. The latter’s CV is, however, murky: in July 2022, the sanctions commission of the Financial Markets Authority (AMF) imposed a fine on Christian Burrus as part of the takeover of the company April in 2019.
In the mutual affair, several sources indicate that Diot-Siaci’s offer was not the most competitive. Especially since health management could be outsourced abroad, with contributions collected in France.
If the call for tenders took place on the sly, it seems to have been tailor-made for Diot-Sicaci. The applicants for this call for tenders only had three weeks, an unthinkable deadline for such a file, to formulate their offer. In addition, the social partners (employers and unions) were excluded, the call for tenders indicating that the chosen delegate should not maintain relations with “the professional employer organizations and the employee union organizations of the HCR branch “. Finally, the winner of the call for tenders had no obligation, according to the call for tenders, to take over the personnel dedicated to this sector at Colonna Facility.
This is surprising, even to the French government. The subject is in fact currently being studied by the Minister of Labor. A very political subject therefore, which risks having consequences for Diot-Siaci and, consequently, for the bottom of Ontario.
EDMONTON – RCMP say a second suspect has been arrested in the killing of an Alberta county worker.
Mounties say 28-year-old Elijah Strawberry was taken into custody Friday at a house on O’Chiese First Nation.
Colin Hough, a worker with Rocky View County, was shot and killed while on the job on a rural road east of Calgary on Aug. 6.
Another man who worked for Fortis Alberta was shot and wounded, and RCMP said the suspects fled in a Rocky View County work truck.
Police later arrested Arthur Wayne Penner, 35, and charged him with first-degree murder and attempted murder, and a warrant was issued for Strawberry’s arrest.
RCMP also said there was a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Strawberry, describing him as armed and dangerous.
Chief Supt. Roberta McKale, told a news conference in Edmonton that officers had received tips and information over the last few weeks.
“I don’t know of many members that when were stopped, fuelling up our vehicles, we weren’t keeping an eye out, looking for him,” she said.
But officers had been investigating other cases when they found Strawberry.
“Our investigators were in O’Chiese First Nation at a residence on another matter and the major crimes unit was there working another file and ended up locating him hiding in the residence,” McKale said.
While an investigation is still underway, RCMP say they’re confident both suspects in the case are in police custody.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
RICHMOND, B.C. – The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says the 26-year-old son of a man found dead on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast has been charged with his murder.
Police say 58-year-old Henry Doyle was found badly injured on a forest service road in Egmont last September and died of his injuries.
The homicide team took over when the BC Coroners Service said the man’s death was suspicious.
It says in a statement that the BC Prosecution Service has approved one count of first-degree murder against the man’s son, Jackson Doyle.
Police say the accused will remain in custody until at least his next court appearance.
The homicide team says investigators remained committed to solving the case with the help of the community of Egmont, the RCMP on the Sunshine Coast and in Richmond, and the Vancouver Police Department.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, have broken off without an agreement following 15 hours of talks.
Joe McCann, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they stayed at the bargaining table with help from a mediator until 2 a.m. Friday and made “some progress.”
However, he says the union negotiators didn’t get an offer that they could recommend to the membership.
McCann says that in some ways they are close to an agreement, but in other areas they are “miles apart.”
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people who can’t navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last week, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
McCann asks HandyDART users to be “patient,” since they are trying to get not only a fair contract for workers but also a better service for customers.
He says it’s unclear when the talks will resume, but he hopes next week at the latest.
The employer, Transdev, didn’t reply to an interview request before publication.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
