Jacques Corriveau, a key figure in the sponsorship scandal, denies allegations from an earlier witness that he pressured people for under-the-table donations to the Liberal Party.

In testimony before the Gomery inquiry two weeks ago, former Groupaction ad exec Jean Brault implicated Corriveau and promoter Luc Lemay in a wide-ranging scheme that allegedly used Brault's firm to funnel the Liberal Party's Quebec wing.

Corriveau, known as a good friend of prime minister Jean Chretien, denied Brault's allegations.

"He flat out denies that he encouraged or pressured Jean Brault to give money under the table," CTV's Rosemary Thompson reported at the conclusion of Friday's testimony in Montreal.

Brault testified he paid Corriveau, a friend of former prime minister Jean Chretien, nearly $500,000 under one bogus contract, and alleged Corriveau sent the cash to the Quebec wing.

Corriveau faced repeated questions on Friday about his billing practices and about when he first learned the sponsorship program existed.

He was accused of submitting bills for events at Olympic stadiums in Quebec that did not exist. He told the Gomery inquiry in Montreal that all of it was simply a mistake.

He said the events did take place and that he did consulting work for hunting and fishing events in several cities including Rimouski, Chicoutimi and Sherbrooke, where there are no such stadiums.

"It was a significant printing error," he told the inquiry.

He noted that a bill for a 1997 hunting and fishing show at the Montreal Olympic Stadium was used as a template for billing at the regional shows and the words "Olympic Stadium" were not removed.

Billings under scrutiny

When his testimony began on Thursday afternoon, Corriveau said the combination of age and ailments are preventing him from recalling some details in his testimony.

He said he had major surgery last November and that prescription drugs are causing memory problems.

In his testimony, he has good recollections of projects and billings, but seems hazier on people and conversations.

Corriveau received $6.7 million in money under the sponsorship program, the inquiry has been told. He said he was paid a commission of 17.5 per cent to lobby the federal government for sponsorship projects because he was a good salesman.

Along with the money issue, there were also questions raised about when Corriveau first learned of the program.

He said the creation and operation of the program was "common knowledge" in the political circles he moved in -- and that some people were aware of it long before the program was officially announced.

Corriveau said he'd heard about the program in "'96 or '97. All possibilities are plausible," he said.

At one point, Justice John Gomery even stopped Corriveau's testimony to clarify what he'd heard, since, he reminded the hearing, the sponsorship program was only officially announced in 2000.

"I've heard MPs, and cabinet ministers, all sorts of people speak up (before the inquiry), and the program wasn't generally known," Gomery said.

"So it's very interesting to me -- and very important to me -- to find out how you found out?"

'Who knew?'

"You said it was common knowledge in your environment, but who knew exactly?," Gomery asked Corriveau.

Corriveau said he could neither remember nor identify "who really made me aware of it."

Nor could he say when any first conversation or discussion about the program's existence might have taken place.

"To say exactly when it happened? No," he replied.

"As a volunteer in the Liberal Party of Canada, I was very involved in a very political milieu -- and in an advertising environment," Corriveau said.

Thompson said that Corriveau "just knew about it" somehow. "He was asked whether Chretien told him about it. He said no."

Corriveau also acknowledged what had been said before at the inquiry: that the program was part of a deliberate strategy "to boost the image of the federal government" in Quebec and to combat separatism in the years after the last referendum.

"If we look at what was happening after the referendum, the government of Canada was interested in having a greater, higher profile, more visibility in Quebec," he said.