By Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative
A former mayor of Danville and two former councillors have launched a petition calling on Minister of Municipal Affairs Andrée Laforest to launch an independent inquiry into the situation that led to the municipality falling three years behind on its financial statements.
“We don’t want to accuse anyone – the inquiry will tell us if anyone on the council or the administration did wrong, including any of us,” former mayor Michel Plourde, who served from 2013-2021, told The Record. Plourde and his former council colleagues Nathalie Boissé and Jean-Guy Dionne launched the petition Jan. 25. “We’re sticking our necks out. People might say, ‘You’re doing it to clear your reputation,’ and in a way, we are, but we want answers too.”
Between 2017 and the departure of the previous city manager in 2021, the city did not file a single annual financial statement according to Plourde. “The mayor has a duty of surveillance [but] the mayor and council cannot do that job [of filing the annual reports],” he explained, citing the Cities and Towns Act, which gives that responsibility to the town’s clerk or treasurer. In addition to the missing annual statements, Plourde alluded to missing interim statements and delayed council meeting minutes. For legal reasons, he is unable to discuss the circumstances of the town manager’s departure, although he said he hoped an inquiry would allow more information to be made public and shed light on whether financial misdeeds were committed.
Plourde, who left office in October 2021 and did not seek a third term, said he asked the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs (MAMH) on three occasions – in May and December 2020 and September 2021 – to put the town under administration in order to address the delayed financial reports. The MAMH denied the requests at the time. Plourde, Boissé and Dionne are now calling on Laforest to intervene and name an independent investigator to review the town’s finances dating back to January 2017. “We’re calling for an independent investigator because the MAMH didn’t do its job the first time,” he said.
Plourde’s successor, Mayor Martine Sartre said she felt “kind of foreign to the file” because she was not involved in municipal politics or administration during Plourde’s tenure. “It’s his right [to call for an inquiry] but for the municipality, it doesn’t change anything,” she said. “Since our administration came in, we’ve seen nothing that led us to believe there has been wrongdoing.”
She said the town had appointed external auditors to assess the town’s financial well-being, and the 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 financial statements had been completed in the past two years.
“It’s really difficult, because it’s hard to access government subsidies [for development projects] if our financial statements aren’t up to date.”
Amid a labour shortage, inflation, deteriorating infrastructure and a divisive dispute over taxation and service fees, Sartre said she and her administration “didn’t have the energy to go back over the past.”
It is unclear whether Laforest has the inclination or the power to order such an inquiry. An inquiry to her office was redirected to the MAMH. MAMH spokesperson Sébastien Gariépy said the Commission municipale du Québec (CMQ) is “the only one-stop shop” for citizens and internal whistleblowers calling for “municipal integrity investigations.”
“The town of Danville is currently [receiving] specialized support in municipal finances offered by the MAMH. The ministry is monitoring the situation closely and remains available to answer questions from elected officials, municipal officers and citizens,” Gariépy added. No one from the CMQ was immediately available for comment. [1]
…although I am hoping to get someone tomorrow!