By the time commision lawyer Denis Gallant had reviewed all 91 sewer contracts handled by Gilles Surprenant between 2000 and 2008, the total amount of kickbacks the former city engineer says he accepted had reached $706 000.

That figure didn't include the value of the different gifts he says he received from member of the sewer construction cartel like trips, restaurant and golf outings and season hockey tickets for the Bell Centre worth about $12 000.

At the start of his testimony last Thursday, Surprenant had said that he'd accepted kickbacks totalling $600 000.

Surprenant says the kickbacks started getting smaller in 2006 and stopped altogether in late 2008 after he says cartel members began realizing that the collusion wheel could turn without any help and that Surprenant was less and less useful to them.

Surprenant finally retired from the city in 2009.