While the population of Quebec is aging faster than it’s ever been, a Quebec billionaire and controversial business man is completing the construction of his 14th residence for elderly people.

Average age of people in Quebec, according to Statistics Canada 2016 Census data. Credit: Gabrièle Roy 

Eddy Savoie is the founder, owner and president of the Groupe Savoie, which owns the Résidences Soleil for elderly people. From the residence in Sherbrooke to the ones around Montreal, Groupe Savoie employs 2,000 people and 7,000 people live in the residences, according to Résidences Soleil website.

Here are the 14 residences across Quebec. Credit: Gabrièle Roy

The starting price for a studio in those residences is more than $1,200. Marco Guerrera, public affairs councillor at FADOQ, the largest association of Quebecers over 50 years old, says, “the median income of people over 65 years old is $19,500, so most of them don’t have enough money to go in a residence like Résidence Soleil.”

Groupe Savoie said in an email no one was available to do an interview.

Many will know Savoie from his numerous appearances in Résidence Soleil TV commercials. Others will remember his long battle with Superior Court of Québec.

Court case
In 2011, Pierrette Thériault-Martel publicly denounced the poor health care given to her mother, a resident at CHSLD Saint-Lambert-sur-le-Golf, the first CHSLD – a long term care establishment or retirement home- built on a public and private partnership in Quebec with Groupe Savoie.

Eddy Savoie sued her for defamation, demanding $400,000. Thériault-Martel only made $12,000 a year at the time, while Savoie estimated his personal wealth at $1.5 billion, according to court documents.

He asked a court to keep the figures confidential, but the request was denied in May 2014, when a judge cited philosopher Jeremy Bentham famous quote, “where there is no publicity, there is no justice.”

After a four-year battle in court, judge Gary D.D. Morrison deemed the billionaire’s suit abusive and ordered him to pay $310,000 to Thériault-Martel. Morrison declared the suit as a strategic lawsuit against public participation, also known as a SLAPP suit.

Judith Dagenais, lawyer for Thériault-Martel says, “It was the first time in Quebec that someone was ordered to pay such amount for a SLAPP suit.”

In his judgment, Morrison explained that Savoie had no remorse and that “he maintained he would have done the exact same thing again if he had the chance.”

“It was a disproportionate context, like David and Goliath, where he tried to prohibit her from denunciating a situation she had all rights to talk about”, says Dagenais.

Judith Dagenais, lawyer for Thériault-Martel, says the court case was an important one, not only for the health care system in Quebec but also for the disproportionate context in which it took place. She also says SLAPP suits are very rare.

Inspection report
In December 2016, CHSLD Saint-Lambert-sur-le-Golf did not achieve the customer satisfaction standards, which resulted in an external investigation by the minister of health and services in Quebec.

According to the most recent inspection report published in early 2017, CHSLD Saint-Lambert-sur-le-Golf “must offer a better life quality to its residents.”

One of the numerous recommendations requested by the minister is that the “the institution take the necessary steps to ensure that the staff is showing attention to the residents.”

In 2015, judge Hellen Paré of Quebec’s civil court sentenced ex CHSLD Saint-Lambert-sur-le-golf employee Immacula Eugène to 15 months in prison for “having maltreated patients.” Eugène pleaded guilty to assaults against six beneficiaries as well as having administered anxiolytics to two patients, without their knowledge, to make them sleep, according to the court document.

The 14 other residences owned by Groupe Savoie are private. There are no publicly available inspection reports for these residences.

Political donations
Savoie has donated more than $23,500 to Quebec’s Liberal party between 2000 and 2014, according to data obtained on the open data website of the Directeur Général des Élections du Quebec.
His wife who is vice-present of the Groupe Savoie, Carmelle Ouellette, also gave more than $20,000 to Quebec’s liberal party between these years.