Quebec may not hold hearings on pension fund's losses

The Quebec government is indicating there will likely be no special hearings to probe the biggest loss in the history of the province's public pension fund manager.

In late February, the government said it would call top officials from the Caisse de dpt et placement du Qubec before a special legislative committee to explain how the pension fund lost $39.8 billion last year, the biggest loss in its history.

In supporting the need for an inquiry, the Opposition Parti Qubcois said Finance Minister Monique Jrme-Forget should be forced to testify about her role in the Caisse's losses.

Jrme-Forget said she doesn't have time for that.

On Wednesday, she said, with or without special hearings, legislators will get to the bottom of the pension fund's staggering losses.

"We will spend hours questioning and analyzing, so it's not that nothing is going to happen," she said Wednesday.

Jrme-Forget said budget review hearings scheduled for next month will give opposition parties time to question the government, fund managers even its past president if they wish.

Government house leader Jacques Dupuis said special hearings could get all that done much faster.

"We don't want to hide anything. The population will have all the answers. But the PQ has to dance."

In other words, Dupuis said, the PQ must first drop its demand that the finance minister testify under oath.

Opposition house leader Stphane Bdard said that is out of the question.

Bdard said the Liberals are taking Quebecers for fools by suggesting the government is not partly responsible for the disaster at the pension fund.