Public Procurement In Quebec: New Authorization Regime Under Judicial Scrutiny

On December 7, 2012, in the wake of the corruption and collusion scandals, the newly elected Quebec government (Government) adopted its first piece of legislation, the Integrity in Public Contracts Act (Integrity Act), which introduced the requirement for business enterprises wishing to contract with the Government to obtain a prior authorization from the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), Quebec's financial markets regulator.

On May 15, 2014, for the first time since the adoption of the act, the Québec Superior Court analyzed the normative framework governing applications seeking an authorization to enter into contracts with public bodies. More specifically, the court examined AMF's discretionary power to refuse to issue an authorization to an enterprise based on its failure to "meet the high standards of integrity that the public is entitled to expect from a party to a public contract"; a controversial criteria of the Integrity Act, due to its discretionary