Guy Coulombe
Encyclopedia
Guy Coulombe was a senior public servant in the Canadian
province of Quebec
. At various times the leader of Hydro-Quebec
and the Sûreté du Québec
and the general manager of Montreal
, Coulombe was described as Quebec's "go-to mandarin
on tough issues."
. He earned a Bachelor of Science
degree and a master's degree
in sociology
from the Université Laval
and later entered a Ph.D.
program in economic development at the University of Chicago
. He returned to Quebec City without completing his degree to enter the public service in the early years of Quebec's Quiet Revolution
.
Coulombe became a Quebec public servant in 1963 as a member of the Bureau d'aménagement de l'Est de Québec. From 1966 to 1969, he was director of planning at the Office de planification et de développment du Québec. He briefly entered the Canadian federal civil service in 1969 as assistant deputy minister of supply and services, but returned to Quebec in 1970 to become assistant secretary of the province's treasury board. In 1973, he was promoted to secretary.
In 1975, Coulombe was appointed by Quebec premier
Robert Bourassa
to become secretary-general of the Executive Council of Quebec
(i.e., the provincial cabinet). He was retained in this position after Parti Québécois
leader René Lévesque
succeeded Bourassa as premier in 1976. Two years later, he was named as president and chief executive officer of the Société générale de financement du Québec. He oversaw a restructuring of the organization and announced that it had made a $9.5 million profit for 1979, compared with losses of $14.4 million the previous year. In 1980, he announced that his agency would invest $1.2 billion in Quebec businesses over the next five years.
Coulumbe was appointed as a representative of Quebec government agencies on the board of Domtar
in 1981. In December of the same year, he oversaw the sale of a thirty-five per cent equity interest in Marine Industries Ltd. of Sorel to the French
firm Alsthom-Atlantique
.
Hydro-Quebec
René Lévesque appointed Coulombe as president and chief executive officer of Hydro-Quebec
in late 1981, with a term beginning on January 15, 1982. In September 1982, Coulombe introduced a significant restructuring program for Hydro-Quebec's upper management. He released a revised capital spending program shortly thereafter, indicating that the agency would avoid significant new projects over the next five to six years due to a recession and reduced demand. Hydro-Quebec posted a forty-three per cent profit increase for 1982, despite a drop in consumption. Coulombe introduced another revised plan in 1983 that further downgraded capital spending in light of ongoing difficulties selling surplus energy to neighbouring markets.
In mid-1985, Coulombe criticized a plan by Robert Bourassa (then the leader of the opposition
in the Quebec legislature
) to export twelve thousand megawatts of power to the United States of America. Although Coulombe also favoured increased sales to the United States, he argued that Bourassa's strategy could lock Quebec into unfavourable rates and was too risky in the long term. After Bourassa became premier again in late 1985, Coulombe indicated that Hydro-Quebec could be confident of exporting 3,500 to 4,500 megawatts of power by the mid-1990s. He also indicated that it had a plan for exports almost as large as those preferred by Bourassa if "economic growth [in neighbouring markets] exceeds present predictions."
Coulombe oversaw a major deal in late 1985 to export up to 2,300 megawatts of Quebec's energy to New England
utilities. The following year, he announced that Hydro-Quebec would invest between twenty and twenty-seven billion dollars to construct new dams and transmission lines over the next decade, mostly to export energy to the United States. In early 1987, he helped conclude a deal for Quebec to export up to one thousand megawatts of power to Maine
by 2020. The latter deal was valued at fifteen billion dollars.
Coulombe left Hydro-Quebec in April 1988, at around the same time that Premier Bourassa introduced his plans for the massive Great Whale Hydro Project
in northern Quebec to provide energy for New York State. Rumours had previously circulated that Coulombe was unhappy working under Bourassa.
Subsequent career
Coulombe was appointed by the government of Canada
to the Canadian National Railway
board of governors in June 1988. He also served a brief term as president and chief operating officer of Consolidated-Bathurst Inc. in the late 1980s, in which capacity he advocated a merger with Domtar. He resigned after Consolidated was sold to Chicago
entrepreneur Roger Stone.
Coulombe was appointed as president of the Quebec-Canada Television Consortium (CTQC) in April 1991, and in July 1992 he was appointed to a three-year term on the board of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
. He was the Quebec government's chief negotiator in land claims negotiations with the Atikamekw
and Montagnais First Nations in the same period.
Sûreté du Québec
In November 1996, Coulombe was appointed as interim director of the Sûreté du Québec
(SQ), the provincial police force. He was the first civilian to oversee the SQ or its predecessor organizations in the force's 127-year history; the SQ had previously been implicated in a serious corruption scandal, and Coulombe's appointment coincided with the launch of a public inquiry into its activities. One journalist wrote that the Quebec government had "effectively placed the Sûreté in trusteeship" through his appointment.
Coulombe introduced a series of reforms in August 1997 that he said would make the SQ "become again a great police force." His one hundred page plan included requirements that investigators file daily reports and videotape interrogations, the hiring of in-house lawyers to advise investigators, better screening for promotions and preference for educated candidates, and structural adjustments for rural divisions. Coulombe acknowledged that some officers might be reluctant to accept the changes, saying "It's a matter of culture and attitude really... There's no magic wand. If the investigators feel confident, if they are well supervised, then they'll move ahead."
Coulombe was confirmed as the SQ's director in May, after eighteen months of holding the position on an interim basis. He left the position in November of the same year.
Montreal administrator and after
Coulombe was appointed as city manager for Montreal
in late 1999 and served until early 2003. Considered close to Quebec premier Lucien Bouchard
, Coulombe helped ensure the amalgamation of Montreal with its suburban communities on a strong central governance model.
In 2004, Coulombe was appointed by the Quebec government to chair a commission on the management of the province's public forests. The commission concluded that the forests were over-harvested, recommended a 20 per cent cut in production, and argued for a more ecologically sound and decentralized approach. The Quebec government subsequently introduced sector cuts slightly larger than those recommended by Coulombe.
Coulombe later chaired an advisory panel that examined a proposal by Loto-Quebec
and Cirque du Soleil
to establish a casino
in Montreal. The panel concluded in March 2006 that the plan "deserve[d] consideration, because of its positive impact on the city of Montreal's economic and urban development" but added that a final decision would be "premature" and recommended further study. Cirque du Soleil announced the following day that it would abandon the plan, citing uncertainty as to a final decision.
In late 2006, Coulombe was appointed as a mediator between the Quebec government and the province's medical specialists in a dispute over pay and working conditions. The two sides reached an agreement in September 2007.
Coulombe recommended in 2010 that Quebec introduce a centralized bidding procedure for municipal contacts with a centralized computer registry. This was intended to reduce the possibility of corrupt practices.
Coulombe was named to the Order of Quebec in June 2007. The following year, Luc Bernier contributed a chapter entitled, "Leadership and Province Building: Guy Coulombe in Quebec" to book, Searching for leadership: secretaries to cabinet in Canada. Bernier credited Coulombe with "institut[ing] order in chaotic organizational structures."
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
province of Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
. At various times the leader of Hydro-Quebec
Hydro-Québec
Hydro-Québec is a government-owned public utility established in 1944 by the Government of Quebec. Based in Montreal, the company is in charge of the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity across Quebec....
and the Sûreté du Québec
Sûreté du Québec
Sûreté du Québec or SQ is the provincial police force for the Canadian province of Québec...
and the general manager of Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Coulombe was described as Quebec's "go-to mandarin
Mandarin (bureaucrat)
A mandarin was a bureaucrat in imperial China, and also in the monarchist days of Vietnam where the system of Imperial examinations and scholar-bureaucrats was adopted under Chinese influence.-History and use of the term:...
on tough issues."
Early life
Coulombe was born to an upper middle class family in Quebec CityQuebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
. He earned a Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
degree and a master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
from the Université Laval
Université Laval
Laval University is the oldest centre of education in Canada and was the first institution in North America to offer higher education in French...
and later entered a Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
program in economic development at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. He returned to Quebec City without completing his degree to enter the public service in the early years of Quebec's Quiet Revolution
Quiet Revolution
The Quiet Revolution was the 1960s period of intense change in Quebec, Canada, characterized by the rapid and effective secularization of society, the creation of a welfare state and a re-alignment of politics into federalist and separatist factions...
.
Public servant
Early yearsCoulombe became a Quebec public servant in 1963 as a member of the Bureau d'aménagement de l'Est de Québec. From 1966 to 1969, he was director of planning at the Office de planification et de développment du Québec. He briefly entered the Canadian federal civil service in 1969 as assistant deputy minister of supply and services, but returned to Quebec in 1970 to become assistant secretary of the province's treasury board. In 1973, he was promoted to secretary.
In 1975, Coulombe was appointed by Quebec premier
Premier of Quebec
The Premier of Quebec is the first minister of the Canadian province of Quebec. The Premier is the province's head of government and his title is Premier and President of the Executive Council....
Robert Bourassa
Robert Bourassa
Jean-Robert Bourassa, was a politician in Quebec, Canada. He served as the 22nd Premier of Quebec in two different mandates, first from May 12, 1970, to November 25, 1976, and then from December 12, 1985, to January 11, 1994, serving a total of just under 15 years as Provincial Premier.-Early...
to become secretary-general of the Executive Council of Quebec
Executive Council of Quebec
The Executive Council of Quebec is the cabinet of the government of Quebec, Canada....
(i.e., the provincial cabinet). He was retained in this position after Parti Québécois
Parti Québécois
The Parti Québécois is a centre-left political party that advocates national sovereignty for the province of Quebec and secession from Canada. The Party traditionally has support from the labour movement. Unlike many other social-democratic parties, its ties with the labour movement are informal...
leader René Lévesque
René Lévesque
René Lévesque was a reporter, a minister of the government of Quebec, , the founder of the Parti Québécois political party and the 23rd Premier of Quebec...
succeeded Bourassa as premier in 1976. Two years later, he was named as president and chief executive officer of the Société générale de financement du Québec. He oversaw a restructuring of the organization and announced that it had made a $9.5 million profit for 1979, compared with losses of $14.4 million the previous year. In 1980, he announced that his agency would invest $1.2 billion in Quebec businesses over the next five years.
Coulumbe was appointed as a representative of Quebec government agencies on the board of Domtar
Domtar
Domtar Corporation is the largest integrated producer of uncoated freesheet paper in North America and the second largest in the world based on production capacity, and is also a manufacturer of papergrade pulp....
in 1981. In December of the same year, he oversaw the sale of a thirty-five per cent equity interest in Marine Industries Ltd. of Sorel to the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
firm Alsthom-Atlantique
Alstom
Alstom is a large multinational conglomerate which holds interests in the power generation and transport markets. According to the company website, in the years 2010-2011 Alstom had annual sales of over €20.9 billion, and employed more than 85,000 people in 70 countries. Alstom's headquarters are...
.
Hydro-Quebec
René Lévesque appointed Coulombe as president and chief executive officer of Hydro-Quebec
Hydro-Québec
Hydro-Québec is a government-owned public utility established in 1944 by the Government of Quebec. Based in Montreal, the company is in charge of the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity across Quebec....
in late 1981, with a term beginning on January 15, 1982. In September 1982, Coulombe introduced a significant restructuring program for Hydro-Quebec's upper management. He released a revised capital spending program shortly thereafter, indicating that the agency would avoid significant new projects over the next five to six years due to a recession and reduced demand. Hydro-Quebec posted a forty-three per cent profit increase for 1982, despite a drop in consumption. Coulombe introduced another revised plan in 1983 that further downgraded capital spending in light of ongoing difficulties selling surplus energy to neighbouring markets.
In mid-1985, Coulombe criticized a plan by Robert Bourassa (then the leader of the opposition
Leader of the Opposition
The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest party not in government in a Westminster System of parliamentary government...
in the Quebec legislature
National Assembly of Quebec
The National Assembly of Quebec is the legislative body of the Province of Quebec. The Lieutenant Governor and the National Assembly compose the Parliament of Quebec, which operates in a fashion similar to those of other British-style parliamentary systems.The National Assembly was formerly the...
) to export twelve thousand megawatts of power to the United States of America. Although Coulombe also favoured increased sales to the United States, he argued that Bourassa's strategy could lock Quebec into unfavourable rates and was too risky in the long term. After Bourassa became premier again in late 1985, Coulombe indicated that Hydro-Quebec could be confident of exporting 3,500 to 4,500 megawatts of power by the mid-1990s. He also indicated that it had a plan for exports almost as large as those preferred by Bourassa if "economic growth [in neighbouring markets] exceeds present predictions."
Coulombe oversaw a major deal in late 1985 to export up to 2,300 megawatts of Quebec's energy to New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
utilities. The following year, he announced that Hydro-Quebec would invest between twenty and twenty-seven billion dollars to construct new dams and transmission lines over the next decade, mostly to export energy to the United States. In early 1987, he helped conclude a deal for Quebec to export up to one thousand megawatts of power to Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
by 2020. The latter deal was valued at fifteen billion dollars.
Coulombe left Hydro-Quebec in April 1988, at around the same time that Premier Bourassa introduced his plans for the massive Great Whale Hydro Project
James Bay Project
The James Bay Project is a series of hydroelectric development with a combined installed capacity of over 16,000 megawatts built since 1974 for Hydro-Québec by the on the La Grande and other rivers of Northern Quebec....
in northern Quebec to provide energy for New York State. Rumours had previously circulated that Coulombe was unhappy working under Bourassa.
Subsequent career
Coulombe was appointed by the government of Canada
Government of Canada
The Government of Canada, formally Her Majesty's Government, is the system whereby the federation of Canada is administered by a common authority; in Canadian English, the term can mean either the collective set of institutions or specifically the Queen-in-Council...
to the Canadian National Railway
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....
board of governors in June 1988. He also served a brief term as president and chief operating officer of Consolidated-Bathurst Inc. in the late 1980s, in which capacity he advocated a merger with Domtar. He resigned after Consolidated was sold to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
entrepreneur Roger Stone.
Coulombe was appointed as president of the Quebec-Canada Television Consortium (CTQC) in April 1991, and in July 1992 he was appointed to a three-year term on the board of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited or AECL is a Canadian federal Crown corporation and Canada's largest nuclear science and technology laboratory...
. He was the Quebec government's chief negotiator in land claims negotiations with the Atikamekw
Atikamekw
The Atikamekw are the indigenous inhabitants of the area they refer to as Nitaskinan , in the upper Saint-Maurice River valley of Quebec , Canada. Their population currently stands at around 4500. One of the main communities is Manawan, about northeast of Montreal. They have a tradition of...
and Montagnais First Nations in the same period.
Sûreté du Québec
In November 1996, Coulombe was appointed as interim director of the Sûreté du Québec
Sûreté du Québec
Sûreté du Québec or SQ is the provincial police force for the Canadian province of Québec...
(SQ), the provincial police force. He was the first civilian to oversee the SQ or its predecessor organizations in the force's 127-year history; the SQ had previously been implicated in a serious corruption scandal, and Coulombe's appointment coincided with the launch of a public inquiry into its activities. One journalist wrote that the Quebec government had "effectively placed the Sûreté in trusteeship" through his appointment.
Coulombe introduced a series of reforms in August 1997 that he said would make the SQ "become again a great police force." His one hundred page plan included requirements that investigators file daily reports and videotape interrogations, the hiring of in-house lawyers to advise investigators, better screening for promotions and preference for educated candidates, and structural adjustments for rural divisions. Coulombe acknowledged that some officers might be reluctant to accept the changes, saying "It's a matter of culture and attitude really... There's no magic wand. If the investigators feel confident, if they are well supervised, then they'll move ahead."
Coulombe was confirmed as the SQ's director in May, after eighteen months of holding the position on an interim basis. He left the position in November of the same year.
Montreal administrator and after
Coulombe was appointed as city manager for Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
in late 1999 and served until early 2003. Considered close to Quebec premier Lucien Bouchard
Lucien Bouchard
Lucien Bouchard, is a Canadian lawyer, diplomat, politician and former Minister of the Environment of the Canadian Federal Government. He was the Leader of Opposition in the Canadian House of Commons from 1993 to 1996, and the 27th Premier of Quebec from January 29, 1996 to March 8, 2001...
, Coulombe helped ensure the amalgamation of Montreal with its suburban communities on a strong central governance model.
In 2004, Coulombe was appointed by the Quebec government to chair a commission on the management of the province's public forests. The commission concluded that the forests were over-harvested, recommended a 20 per cent cut in production, and argued for a more ecologically sound and decentralized approach. The Quebec government subsequently introduced sector cuts slightly larger than those recommended by Coulombe.
Coulombe later chaired an advisory panel that examined a proposal by Loto-Quebec
Loto-Québec
Loto-Québec is a government agency that develops and operates lotteries in the province of Quebec, Canada.-Loto-Québec's mission:Loto-Québec is a Québec government corporation whose mandate is to operate games of chance in the province in an orderly and measured way. It was created in 1969 to...
and Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil , is a Canadian entertainment company, self-described as a "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy...
to establish a casino
Casino
In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...
in Montreal. The panel concluded in March 2006 that the plan "deserve[d] consideration, because of its positive impact on the city of Montreal's economic and urban development" but added that a final decision would be "premature" and recommended further study. Cirque du Soleil announced the following day that it would abandon the plan, citing uncertainty as to a final decision.
In late 2006, Coulombe was appointed as a mediator between the Quebec government and the province's medical specialists in a dispute over pay and working conditions. The two sides reached an agreement in September 2007.
Coulombe recommended in 2010 that Quebec introduce a centralized bidding procedure for municipal contacts with a centralized computer registry. This was intended to reduce the possibility of corrupt practices.
Coulombe was named to the Order of Quebec in June 2007. The following year, Luc Bernier contributed a chapter entitled, "Leadership and Province Building: Guy Coulombe in Quebec" to book, Searching for leadership: secretaries to cabinet in Canada. Bernier credited Coulombe with "institut[ing] order in chaotic organizational structures."