Canada

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Gilles Surprenant, a retired engineer at the City of Montreal, testifies before the Charbonneau Commission on this image made off television Thursday, October 18, 2012 in Montreal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

The man known as "Mr. TPS" to Montreal construction companies says he was pretty ill at ease with the idea of collecting kickbacks from entrepreneurs while helping inflate the price of construction contracts on the island.

But whatever discomfort Gilles Surprenant felt didn't prevent him from taking the ill-gotten money, which by his own admission amounted to nearly $600,000 in cash over almost 20 years, a Quebec corruption inquiry heard Thursday.

Often evasive and nervous on the stand at the Charbonneau Commission, Surprenant couldn't remember the companies with which he worked.

An ex-construction boss testified previously that Surprenant took a one per cent cut called a "TPS" — the name being a tongue-in-cheek twist on the French-language acronym for the federal sales tax, the GST. In this case, "TPS" stood for 'Taxe Pour Surprenant' (Tax for Surprenant).

Surprenant did not discuss the one per cent but admitted his first "cut" was an envelope containing $3,000 or $4,000 that he received from an entrepreneur in 1991 for a contract he helped pass at city hall.

Surprenant, a chief city planner for many years who prepared plans and budgets for public works projects, followed eight days of headline-grabbing testimony by ex-construction boss Lino Zambito with some of his own.