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Frus­tra­tion boiled over at the Com­mu­ni­ty-Based En­vi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion and En­hance­ment Pro­gramme (CEPEP) head­quar­ters in Ste Madeleine yes­ter­day as for­mer con­trac­tors de­mand­ed out­stand­ing pay­ments fol­low­ing their con­tro­ver­sial dis­missals more than two months ago.

Around mid­day, more than a dozen con­trac­tors gath­ered out­side the build­ing seek­ing an­swers on un­paid man­age­ment fees and one month’s pay­ment in lieu of no­tice (PI­LON). They said the PI­LON was due on Ju­ly 27, but to date, not a cent has been paid and CEPEP has giv­en no in­di­ca­tion of when they will re­ceive it.

The dis­missals have been mired in con­tro­ver­sy, with con­trac­tors ac­cus­ing CEPEP of abrupt­ly end­ing con­tracts un­der the guise of elim­i­nat­ing so-called “ghost gangs” while in­sist­ing they had le­git­i­mate crews and com­plet­ed work.