“During my time there at the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, (CDPQ), namely, the Québec Pension Plan, we became very big players in the economy of Québec, resultant from the millions in contributions from Québéckers. That is when I perceived that political influence, especially after 1978, played an increasingly important role at the Caisse and the Québec Pension Plan: Our investments were then very much determined by political considerations … The Caisse and the Québec Pension Plan secretly followed in the footsteps of Paul Desmarais, and we utterly failed the Québec taxpayers. Sadly enough, the losers are not these wealthy investors, but rather Québéckers themselves are impoverished.”
Pierre Arbour, Québec Inc et la tentation du dirigisme: La Caisse de dépôt et les sociétés d’État: Héritage d’une génération? Montréal, L’Étincelle, 1993, 12–14.