A former Health Canada bureaucrat has pleaded guilty to fraud charges in connection with a multimillion-dollar scandal at a native addictions treatment centre near Winnipeg.

Patrick Nottingham is one of nine people who were charged after a probe into the Virginia Fontaine Addictions Foundation.

The centre, which was located on the Sagkeeng reserve about 145 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, received millions of dollars in federal funding before being closed in 2000.

Virginia Fontaine Memorial Treatment Centre at Sagkeeng reserve northeast of Winnipeg. (CP photo)
Virginia Fontaine Memorial Treatment Centre at Sagkeeng reserve northeast of Winnipeg. (CP photo)

Centre officials have been accused of misspending much of the money on themselves, bribes, lavish gifts – and a Caribbean cruise for 70 staff members.

Nottingham, who was Health Canada's director in Manitoba, was fired after a departmental audit found he had improperly approved $6 million in funding to the centre.

The Crown dropped three other charges against Nottingham and similar charges against his ex-wife Julie Madamin.

Crown prosecutors said more details about Nottingham's actions would be revealed in court when he's sentenced on Friday.

Another Health Canada bureaucrat jailed in case

Nottingham was the second Health Canada bureaucrat to plead guilty in the case.

In March, a former assistant deputy minister was jailed after he admitted that he and his family received more than $200,000 in cash and gifts in exchange for funnelling more than $70 million in contracts to the centre.

Paul Cochrane – who was in charge of a $1-billion budget before he retired in 2001 – told court that the kickbacks included nearly $30,000 in travel to Florida and the Caribbean, several SUVs and tens of thousands of dollars in cash, which he used to buy condominiums in Mont Tremblant, Que.

He alleged in court that they came from Perry Fontaine, the director of the Virginia Fontaine Addictions Foundation that ran the 76-bed treatment centre.

Cochrane said he repeatedly increased funding to the foundation, negotiating agreements with Fontaine before Health Canada officials could approve them and pressuring his staff to fast-track millions of dollars in payments.

Fontaine has denied the allegations, which have not been proven in court. He faces 13 charges, including fraud and forgery, and is expected to stand trial in the spring.