Only five months after the last municipal elections, the citizens of Piedmont, in the Laurentians, find themselves in a situation where they will have to return to the polls to elect more than half of the municipal council.
Last month, Mayor Nathalie Rochon and three of the municipality’s six councilors resigned, due to operating differences. The three remaining advisers had turned their backs on the rest of the team in February.
Added to this are the resignations, for personal reasons, of the director general and clerk of the municipality, and of the assistant director general and director of finance.
In this particular political disorder, the Commission municipale du Québec (CMQ) had no choice but to delegate two provisional administrators. “The CMQ is not there to stay there indefinitely, explained to us the spokesperson for the CMQ, Isabelle Rivoal. The mandate of the two administrators will be to ensure that services are provided to citizens while waiting for the elections. We will first have to appoint a president of the election and the normal course of things will follow.
deep differences
In a press release published on her Facebook page, the resigning mayor indicated that there were “too many differences in our working methods”. “The unhealthy climate had become unbearable,” according to Ms. Rochon, who was in her second term.
“, one of the three who remained in office, to whom we spoke, maintains that he and the two other advisers who did not resign, all new to politics, were forced to make decisions on files where all the necessary information was not had not been forwarded to the board. Moreover, according to him, the mayor had shown very little openness to a dialogue on this issue. “We arrived at full budget. It is clear that we had many questions. We never had time to have a substantive debate on several issues and that is why we dissociated ourselves from Ms. Rochon’s team.
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Councilor Richard Valois
Commenting on these allegations, Ms. Rochon wrote to us in an email that “this is further proof of their misunderstanding”. “Elected officials have to make decisions. It is up to the civil servants to work on the files and present them to the council. Questions are answered by the general management.”
Possible candidates
The announcement of the next elections should be confirmed in the coming days or weeks, according to the CMQ.
Applications to fill vacancies on the board will follow. Several people have expressed their interest. Councilor Valois could start running for mayor, saying he is seriously considering it. “It wasn’t in my original plans. In fact, we are always looking for candidates to form a complete team. We’ll have to see what’s next.”
If he runs for mayor, he will notably have as a competitor Martin Nadon, defeated candidate in the last elections for the prefecture of the MRC des Pays-d’en-Haut, who has already confirmed his candidacy for the position of mayor. “What is happening in Piedmont is incredible. I think the municipality needs someone who can build bridges. I hope this crisis will encourage the people of Piedmont to get more involved.”