(Kazabazua) Craig Gabie, a councillor in the small municipality of Kazabazua in Outaouais, has been in the Bahamas since last winter, but continues to receive a councillor’s salary, completely legally. An absence that raises ethical questions, according to villagers and an expert.
Craig Gabie documents his journey through the tropical archipelago by publishing reels (short videos) on Facebook. In images dated April 15, he is seen fishing in turquoise waters, which are much more reminiscent of the Caribbean Sea than the Gatineau River.
More recently, on June 16, he shared a video of himself teasing sharks with his family. He reportedly landed on the island of Eleuthera, according to our research.
Craig Gabie is reportedly in the Bahamas on a “contract of employment,” according to the mayor and city manager of the small municipality. His absence caused him to miss council meetings in February, March, April, May and June.
Kazabazua Mayor Robert Bergeron says Mr. Gabie is a teacher and was called “to help” in the Bahamas, without specifying the nature of the help.
“It has no impact whether he is there or not,” said the municipality’s general manager, Pierre Vaillancourt. “We can run to five advisers.
As in many small municipalities, the council is made up of six councilors who do not represent a specific electoral district, but all Kazabazuians.
Even though he has not been in the country for several months, he continues to be paid $427 per month – the basic salary for a councillor in Kazabazua – in addition to receiving a monthly allowance of $230.
In the minutes of the last five council meetings, Mr. Gabie’s absences were all marked “Excused”. This mention appears with almost all absences of elected officials since 2017, in Kazabazua. During this period, only nine absences did not bear this mention: they all concerned Mr. Gabie.
According to Danielle Pilette, an associate professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and an expert in the ethics of municipal elected officials, Mr. Gabie must have a good reason to explain such a long absence from the territory he serves. “That raises a big question,” she says, stunned.
Craig Gabie was first elected as a councillor in 2017, unopposed, before being re-elected in the same manner in 2021.
“No harm”
There Law on elections and referendums in municipalities provides that an elected official who is absent from council meetings for 90 consecutive days automatically sees his mandate end. Mr. Gabie’s mandate should therefore normally have ended at the close of the council meeting in May.
However, Article 317 of this law also provides that a municipal council may grant “a grace period of 30 days” to an elected official who has not been able to attend meetings during these 90 days.1This grace is added after the expiration of the 90 days, if the council so decides.
This is the grace period that the Kazabazua council granted to Mr. Gabie, during the May session. If he had attended the June session, he would have seen his time counter reset and would have avoided – for the second time – the automatic end of his mandate.
But Mr. Gabie was not at the June 4 meeting either. During this meeting, however, the council still used another provision of article 317, namely the adoption of a decree which specifies that the absences of an elected official do not result in the end of his mandate, allowing Mr. Gabie to remain abroad.
According to Article 317, however, the absences of the elected official must be due to “a serious reason beyond his control” and must not cause “any harm to citizens”.
Even the seat advisor no 1, Paul Chamberlain – who did not speak for the rest of the session – took the trouble to ask, in English, whether the prolonged absence of Councillor Gabie and the adoption of such a decree were legal, considering the length of his colleague’s trip.
The decree was adopted unanimously by the council.
“The law allows it”
At the end of the session, a citizen made this the subject of his question to the mayor, asking him if he “didn’t find it abnormal” to pay a councillor who has not been present for several months, while the others “make the effort to be there”. It was the general manager, Pierre Vaillancourt, sitting in the centre of the elected officials, who took the ball on the rebound, explaining simply that “the law allows it”.
” The Mister [Craig Gabie] “is still participatory,” then said councilor Damien Lafrenière, sitting closest to the question microphone, to whom the citizen, incredulous, immediately asked: “How? He’s not here?” He did not get an answer.
Mr. Vaillancourt then drew a parallel between Mr. Gabie’s situation and that of a councilor who is in hospital, as two examples of motives “beyond the control” of an elected official.
By telephone, he also said that Mr. Gabie “should be there in July,” adding that “it is possible that he will stay afterward,” to justify his decision not to replace him.
The next meeting of the Kazabazua municipal council will take place this Tuesday, July 2, at the community center.
The Press has been unable to reach Craig Gabie despite several attempts. He does not have a work phone number or a work email address.
1. See Article 317 of the Law on elections and referendums in municipalities