After two weeks of controversy and calls for the resignation of the president of the Office de Consultation public de Montréal (OCPM), the elected officials of the City of Montreal have finally made a decision. They adopted the dismissal of Isabelle Beaulieu and the placing of the organization under supervision.
“We have just made an important decision for the OCPM, we have put an end to the mandate of the current president, Isabelle Beaulieu, for serious misconduct. For what? For serious misconduct, because there is too significant a breach of trust,” declared Robert Beaudry, member of the Executive Committee, during the municipal council meeting yesterday.
The latter thus sealed once and for all the fate of MmeBeaulieu. The latter clung to her position despite revelations concerning her extravagant spending on restaurants, office furniture and electronic equipment.
The motion adopted confirms the termination of his contract “for serious misconduct”. This avoids paying him one year’s salary, or $156,000 expected in the event of termination of employment.
“It’s a situation that we want to transform into an opportunity to completely review the institution. But for that, we need to take strong action,” added Mr. Beaudry, also a city councilor for the Saint-Jacques district.
The OCPM is also ordered to suspend all its expenses, with the exception of “salaries, rent and essential operating expenses” which must be approved in advance by the treasurer.
Activities already planned for the end of the year must be carried out while limiting expenses as much as possible and must also be authorized by the treasurer.
Finally, the general director becomes responsible for supervising the management of the OCPM until a new presidency is appointed. He was also given the mandate to initiate a search process for potential candidates.
The Auditor General has also officially received the mandate to shed light on management problems at the OCPM from 2014 to 2023.
The opposition, however, would have preferred that the council entrust the management of expenditures to an external resource while the General Auditor of the City of Montreal completes her investigation and issues her recommendations.
Isabelle Beaulieu, during her appearance before the Finance Commission on November 17
Photo Agence QMI, JOEL LEMAY
Guy Grenier still in office
The organization’s number 2, Guy Grenier, who was also a regular at good Montreal restaurants and on long and expensive missions abroad, remains in office for the moment.
The city council does not have the power to fire him. The mayor, however, recalled on Friday that a new presidency will be quickly appointed and that the latter will be able to act.
“We would have expected with everything that is happening that Ms. Beaulieu would terminate Mr. Grenier’s contract, which was not done, which demonstrates a certain incomprehension of the current discontent,” she declared.
- Listen to the interview with Denis Coderre, former mayor of the city of Montreal on Alexandre Dubé’s show via QUB radio :
Ollivier still in caucus
Remember that Dominique Ollivier, president of the OCPM between 2014 and 2021 and responsible for a large number of restaurant and travel expenses in addition to having allowed her own right-hand man Luc Doray to do the same, resigned from the position of president of the executive committee last week.
Dominique Ollivier had to resign from her position as president of the executive committee due to our revelations about her numerous expenses when she headed the OCPM.
Photo Agence QMI, JOEL LEMAY
However, she remains a member of the Projet Montréal caucus and municipal councilor.
To a citizen who asked why Ms. Ollivier did not resign from all functions, Robert Beaudry, member of the executive committee and head of the OCPM, replied that she had already paid the price for “choices that she regretted” and that As an advisor, she remained a “committed woman” who had the “collective benefit at heart”.
“The entire caucus of her political party is at her side and is happy to count on a woman of her competence to be part of her team,” he said.
Opposition leader Aref Salem denounced the double standards between the treatment reserved for Ms. Beaulieu and Ms. Ollivier. “The facts were almost the same,” he said.