The political party at the head of Vaudreuil-Dorion crumbled last month when three of its municipal councilors left the formation en bloc, denouncing rigid management, controversial remarks and a lack of respect for the mayor, Guy Pilon. A situation that deserves an analysis by the Commission municipale du Québec (CMQ), believe two experts.
For many years, the municipal council of Vaudreuil-Dorion has been managed solely by members of Guy Pilon’s party, the Parti de l’action de Vaudreuil-Dorion. However, the tide turned last month when three elected municipal officials – a third of the municipal council – slammed the door of the party to sit as independents in order to denounce the management style of the mayor of this municipality in Montérégie.
At the municipal council meeting on January 16, the three municipal councilors spoke in turn, in a tense atmosphere, to denounce the lack of respect, transparency and listening that they claim to have felt on the part of Mr. Pilon and the rest of his team, now made up exclusively of elected men.
To take a position
Joined by The duty, the three independent councilors claim that the mayor, who has held this position for 18 years, requires his members to systematically vote unanimously in favor of the projects he puts forward during public meetings of the municipal council. They claim to have suffered criticism from the mayor and his team when they opposed certain decisions taken by the ruling party, going so far as to describe an “authoritarian climate”.
“The lack of respect, I have seen it on several occasions, both in meetings behind closed doors and during public sessions,” notes one of the councilors in question, Jasmine Sharma. The three elected officials also report derogatory remarks, with a “sexist” connotation, made by the mayor during closed meetings. “There are comments and jokes that are unacceptable in 2023”, launches Mme Sharma, without further detailing the content of the remarks made, because of the confidential nature of these meetings between elected municipal officials.
The three elected officials thus decided to leave Mr. Pilon’s party to sit as independents in order to be able to express their position more freely regarding the measures to be taken to meet the needs of the citizens of Vaudreuil-Dorion, which has just over 43,000 residents. “We ask a lot of questions to make sure that we turn over all the stones,” notes Karine Lechasseur, who volunteered for ten years for Guy Pilon’s training before being elected as an advisor to her team in November 2021.
“When I arrived at the board table, we no longer had this openness to hear my thoughts, my questions […] I asked for support, but quickly felt that the mayor had no intention of supporting me as a municipal councilor, “says Ms.me The hunter.
“When we had questions about projects, we were often cut off,” also says councilor Diane Morin. Now that she is an elected independent, she feels more free to express her opinion in public on political issues.
“Lack of listening”
The three elected officials also claim to have proposed solutions to improve the climate within the party, in vain. “We made attempts at party meetings to settle the problems. In October, we decided to write a document [pour détailler nos critiques à l’endroit du maire]it didn’t give anything more”, enumerates Mme Morin. “There is a total lack of listening. »
Mayor Guy Pilon says for his part that he has nothing to be ashamed of. “They reproached me for lacking listening, transparency […] Everything is completely false,” he says in an interview with Duty. The mayor ensures that all members of his party have the opportunity to express their opinion. However, he insists on the importance that the files “move forward” to the City. However, according to him, the three councilors who decided to sit as independents in mid-January “are not capable of making decisions”. He asserts that they have delayed certain projects by asking to consult several documents before taking a position on them. “If you are going to oppose all the ideas of the party, get out of the party,” he blurted out.
In anticipation of the municipal elections of November 2021, two municipal councillors, Josée Clément and Céline Chartier, had decided not to represent themselves within the team of mayor Guy Pilon. When asked if the mayor’s management style might have influenced their decision at the time, Mr.me Clément declined to comment, while Céline Chartier could not be reached.
In this context, two municipal management experts joined by The duty consider that this case could be the subject of an analysis by the CMQ. The Act respecting ethics and professional conduct in municipal matters also prohibits any member of a municipal council “from engaging in conduct that undermines the honor and dignity of the office of elected official”, recalls Danielle Pilette, who teaches at UQAM. “In short, there could be an investigation,” argues this expert.
“Here, there seems to be a kind of particular angle, which is that of respecting the line of communication between the mayor and the members of the council. In this sense, it seems to me that the case could be submitted to the CMQ in order to clarify what measures should be taken “in order to improve the climate within the formation of Mayor Guy Pilon, also believes Rémy Trudel , visiting professor at the National School of Public Administration.
The CMQ was unable to tell the Duty if the mayor of Vaudreuil-Dorion had been the subject of complaints to this body in recent years, this information being confidential.