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Former Fowler executive in hot water over role in local quarry bid

Moreen Miller, chair of Crown corporation, told government officials she had resigned her post at Fowler, but, months later, was in Ramara in support of their quarry
2019-07-23 Ramara public meeting quarry
It was standing room only in Ramara council chambers at a July public meeting regarding a quarry operation in the township. Among the crowd (front row, far right) was Moreen Miller, the chair of a Crown corporation who had told officials she had resigned from Fowler yet advanced the company's efforts at this meeting months later. OrilliaMatters File Photo

The Globe and Mail reported Friday that the federal government has ordered an “urgent” investigation into the business activities of the chair of a Crown corporation after learning she worked as a consultant for Fowler Construction on a local quarry bid shortly after she resigned as its top executive to resolve a conflict of interest.

The Globe and Mail learned - thanks, in part, to a photo and story published in OrilliaMatters in July - that Moreen Miller’s work for Fowler Construction did not end after she reportedly resigned as president in September, 2018, so she could keep her part-time position as chair of Defence Construction Canada (DCC). 

According to The Globe, the government has asked Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion to investigate Miller, who was appointed in 2017 as chair of DCC, which handles military infrastructure contracts. 

The Globe reported on Thursday that DCC had suspended Fowler from bidding on contracts while Miller was chair, but lifted the suspension after she resigned.

According to The Globe, Public Services and Procurement Minister Carla Qualtrough said an internal probe has been launched.

“Neither the minister nor her office was aware of these allegations prior to today," Qualtrough’s press secretary, Marielle Hossack, said in an e-mail to The Globe. "The minister has directed her officials to investigate this matter on an urgent basis.”

Miller’s appointment as chair of DCC in November, 2017, sparked an internal battle over potential conflict of interest when she said Fowler Construction should be allowed to continue bidding on DCC contracts.

DCC’s five independent directors resigned in protest last year, citing what they considered insufficient action from Qualtrough to address the issue.

Internal measures, however, were enacted to ensure Miller could not make any decisions that could benefit Fowler. Those measures were removed when Miller resigned as Fowler’s president.

Miller assured DCC officials in late 2018 she had severed her ties with Fowler, according to The Globe story. 

In an email on Oct. 1, 2018, obtained by The Globe, Miller told the ethics commissioner’s office: “I can confirm that my only private interest in Fowler was as an employee and that interest ended on Sept. 14. None of my relatives or close friends have a private interest in Fowler.”

However, Miller worked to help Fowler advance a proposed quarry expansion in Ramara Township as early as December of 2018.

On Dec. 19, 2018, The Globe says Miller met with Township of Ramara Mayor Basil Clarke and Coun. David Snutch on behalf of Fowler. Another Fowler representative was also present. 

“She said she was retired, like past president, but she was helping them with this file as, say, an unofficial consultant, because she had the history on the quarry in our township,” Clarke told The Globe.

The meeting was to discuss Fowler’s request for rezoning of a local quarry so the company could extract more aggregate. 

Snutch told The Globe that Miller told him that while she had resigned from Fowler “she been brought on as consultant to push through this rezoning application in Ramara Township.”

On July 11, 2019, Ramara township held a public meeting to discuss Fowler’s rezoning request. Miller attended with Fowler officials and was seen in a photo published by OrilliaMatters. (That photo accompanies this story)

David Donnelly, a lawyer for the Ramara Legacy Alliance, that was fighting the quarry expansion, told The Globe Miller took an active part at the meeting along with Fowler executives.

“The mayor asked for the [Fowler] operations manager to get up to speak, and Miller grabbed him and said, ‘Don’t get up there.’ She was right in the middle of their operations team and experts,” Donnelly told The Globe.

Later in July, Ramara township rejected Fowler’s rezoning request. Fowler has appealed the decision to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT).

On Aug. 7, 2019, Miller, on behalf of Fowler, met with Ramara township’s chief administrative officer, John Pinsent, along with other Fowler representatives, regarding the quarry application. 

Pinsent, in an interview with The Globe, said his assumption was Miller “was a member of Fowler’s management team.” 

In a lawsuit filed earlier this month, James Paul, the former chief executive officer of DCC, says Qualtrough appointed Miller as chair despite concerns he and the five independent directors, who arrange procurement for military infrastructure projects, had raised.

Paul, according to The Globe, further alleges that one of Fowler’s owners, Bill Graham, who was defence minister in a former Liberal government, and a defence policy adviser to the Trudeau government, would have been aware of the benefits of having an executive from his construction company on the board of DCC.

“Mr. Graham therefore has inside knowledge of the opportunity that Defence Construction Canada’s work presented for Fowler and the benefit to Fowler of Ms. Miller being appointed chairperson,” Paul’s lawsuit said. 

None of his allegations have been proven in court.

Paul, who led DCC for 10 years, alleges in his lawsuit the dispute made him a target of Miller and resulted in Ottawa’s decision to reject his application to serve a third five-year term as CEO in July of this year. 

His lawsuit seeks $1.5-million in damages from the government for allegedly “targeting [him] for removal … as a reprisal for pursuing the conflict-of-interest issue.”


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Dave Dawson

About the Author: Dave Dawson

Dave Dawson is community editor of OrilliaMatters.com
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