Judge dismisses appeal, sends illegal builder off to jail

Roland Boissonneault will be going to jail for six months, but Marise Clement says she’s the one who was given a life sentence by the illegal builder.

An Ontario Court judge Wednesday upheld a six-month jail sentence Boissonneault received after his trial last July for failing to provide his customers with coverage under Ontario’s mandatory new homes warranty program and for not being registered to construct new homes.

Boissonneault, who had had his registration with the Ontario New Homes Warranty Program—now known as Tarion—cancelled 15 years ago, was charged in May of 2001 in connection with six homes in Field, Sundridge, St. Charles, and Seguin.

Tarion registers new home builders and vendors, enrols new homes for warranty coverage, investigates illegal building practices, resolves warranty disputes between builders/vendors and homeowners, and promotes high standards of construction among Ontario’s new home builders.

“Through his conduct Mr. Boissonneault entrapped naïve acknowledgeable members of the public to their detriment and to the detriment of the program set up by the province to help them,” Justice Louisette Duchesneau-McLachlan said, while dismissing Boissonneault’s appeal and his attempt to reduce his jail sentence.

Justice Duchesneau-McLachlan said the sentence should act as a deterrent “to warn others that this type of activity will not be tolerated.”

Clement, who had hired Boissonneault to build her a home in Field, was allowed to make a statement at the appeal.

“My health has considerably deteriorated,” she stated, while fighting back tears.

“I still have liens against me.”

Before leaving the court house Clement told BayToday.ca she didn’t believe justice had been served.

“He’s going to jail for six months but he’s given me a prison sentence for the rest of my life, and liens from subcontractors I’ll never be able to pay because I can’t afford to,” she said, adding she’d given Boissonneault her “nest egg”

Boissonneault already owes the city of North Bay almost $13,000 and his now-defunct company just over $17,000.

The city has also garnisheed an unrelated $30,000 unrelated settlement awarded Boissonneault to help recover unpaid illegal building fines he owes.

In all Boissonneault’s sentence is the worst-ever against an illegal builder in Ontario; Tarion prosecutor Carol Street said the organization has paid out over $100,000 in claims filed against him.

Boissonneault’s lawyer Geoff Laplante had asked Justice Duchesneau-McLachlan to order a new trial for his client, stating Justice of the Peace Hayden had made a mistake by not adjourning the trial to allow him to get disclosure he did not have.

Laplante also asked the jail sentence be reduced to 90 days and that Boissonneault be allowed to serve it on weekends.

“A jail sentence is a jail sentence,” Laplante said.

Boissonneault still faces new sets of similar charges.