By Jack Wilson

Local Journalism Initiative

“There are people who lied, who pushed me to resign and I’m the one experiencing the collateral damage the most,” Sherbrooke councillor Marc Denault told The Record days after his Jan. 23 resignation as president of the Société de transport de Sherbrooke (STS).

Denault, who had held his position for 10 years and worked as STS vice president for four years before that, said he resigned after Sherbrooke Mayor Évelyne Beaudin’s office excluded him from a meeting with provincial Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility Geneviève Guilbault. Denault said the mayor’s chief of staff, Steve Roy, told him Guilbault’s office chose to exclude him from the meeting.

The minister, for her part, said her office had no role in keeping Denault from attending. “In no case did I or my team say that we didn’t want Mr. Denault to attend,” Guilbault said in a Jan. 25 interview with 107.7 Estrie’s Martin Pelletier. “It’s up to [the mayor’s] discretion to invite who she wishes,” she said.

“I resigned because the trust relationship was broken and because they lied to me,” Denault said. “I resigned because of my values.”

Denault maintained there were no prior conflicts between him and the mayor’s office. Asked whether the relationship was going “very well” before the incident, Denault responded, “not very well. Things were going well.”

“I think I’m perceived as someone who’s a unifier, conscientious. And I’ve sometimes defended the mayor on certain decisions,” Denault said. Either the mayor or people in her office were responsible for the fallout, he said.

The councillor said he hasn’t spoken to Beaudin since the incident. “I asked her to call me, but she never called me,” he said.

Denault said he was proud to consider the STS “the best organization in Quebec for public transport.” He pointed to reduced fares for low-income people and the universal transit pass for certain educational institutions as key accomplishments. “This wasn’t because of me,” Denault said. “This was because of the entire team’s work.”

The councillor predicted that staffing and finances will remain key challenges for the STS. “And, with the saga we’ve just been through, governance,” he added.

Denault said he will finish his term but won’t stand for election in 2025. He said he had already intended to make this term his last. “I’m turning the page.”

Beaudin’s office didn’t respond to The Record’s request for an interview.