Montreal has agreed to pay $166,000 to the former president of the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM), Isabelle Beaulieu, who was fired last year when the organization was rocked by a controversy over spending by certain managers.
The city council had ratified the dismissal of Mr.me Beaulieu on November 21, 2023. The City accused her of excessive spending, including the purchase of $900 wireless headphones, office equipment, and travel and restaurant expenses. At the time, the City accused her of “serious misconduct,” which would have deprived her of any severance pay, as stipulated in her contract. The OCPM, for its part, had been placed under trusteeship.
However, two weeks later, Isabelle Beaulieu filed a complaint with the Administrative Labour Tribunal to contest her dismissal and demand her reinstatement. After reviewing the evidence, the City’s Legal Department recommended adopting an out-of-court settlement rather than moving forward with the legal process.
One year’s salary
The agreement, the existence of which was first revealed by The Montreal Journal Friday, provides for the payment of $166,000 to Isabelle Beaulieu, the equivalent of one year’s salary.
Targeted by revelations made by Quebecor in the fall of 2023, Isabelle Beaulieu testified before the Finance and Administration Committee to defend her integrity. She acknowledged that some of the expenses she had incurred were too high. “I made mistakes, I recognize that, I take responsibility for them,” she said. On that occasion, she also argued that when she took up her position in February 2022, she had reduced the frequency and scope of travel and had undertaken a review of work methods. She attributed certain management shortcomings to her predecessor in this position, Dominique Ollivier.
Let us recall that Mme Ollivier had resigned from her position as president of the city’s executive committee a few days before Isabelle Beaulieu was fired. She still sits as a councillor in the Vieux-Rosemont district.
Last June, in her annual report, the Auditor General of the City of Montreal, Andrée Cossette, also noted several governance issues at the OCPM.
Turn the page
The agreement reached with Isabelle Beaulieu “puts a definitive end to the ties between the City and the latter,” Marikym Gaudreault, press attaché in Mayor Plante’s office, said in an email Friday. “This settlement allows us to turn the page on a bygone era and avoid additional expenses from taxpayers’ pockets.”
In the wake of the controversies, several measures were put in place by the City to rectify the situation. In December 2023, the OCPM became a department of the City of Montreal under legislative changes obtained from Quebec. It is now subject to the same budgetary process and administrative frameworks as all other City departments. And last June, the former president of the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE), Philippe Bourke, was appointed president of the OCPM.
“Philippe Bourke will continue to work to improve internal processes and implement the recommendations of the Auditor General to continue work on the OCPM’s important mandates for the benefit of the Montreal population,” stressed Marikym Gaudreault.