MONTREAL – Quebec Premier Pauline Marois says companies wanting to get involved in a consortium to rebuild a decaying downtown Montreal interchange had better have a clean record.

Marois says managers, shareholders and owners of construction companies thinking of submitting tenders for the reconstruction of the Turcot interchange will be closely scrutinized.

The Quebec premier says the provincial securities commission, the AMF, will review firms that submit proposals to make sure they haven’t violated any laws.

It will then be up to the consortium to correct any problems or replace any business that may have been involved in collusion or other illegal actions.

Marois announced at a news conference today that the final price tag of the project has a ceiling of $3.7 billion and that it will be delayed several years, with construction to be completed by 2020.

The original cost to rebuild the interchange, a main entry point into downtown Montreal from the west, was $1.5 billion but it has been gradually rising.

Marois accused her predecessors, the Liberals, of lowballing the early estimates for infrastructure projects and pushing them through.

The interchange, which is used by 300,000 vehicles daily, has had to have emergency repairs to make it safe for motorists.

Several lanes were even closed to traffic because some of the supports were unsafe.

Ongoing corruption scandals in Quebec are now entering a new phase — with questions about how to get construction projects going, without rewarding companies that pilfered the public purse.

Last week, Montreal’s mayor launched an online poll asking residents to help resolve the following dilemma: would they rather live with more potholes for a while, or swiftly award a street-repair contract to a consortium that includes companies accused of breaking the law?