Published May 16, 2024

BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1510 West

An official with the Quebec Municipal Affairs Department is currently scheduling meetings for later this month with members of Pointe Claire city council to discuss next steps in the wake of council’s approval of a resolution seeking help from the provincial ministry to restore order in the municipality last month.

Yet, it is still not known how long and what will result of the intervention, according to members of council.

“I don’t know where this will lead,” councillor Bruno Tremblay said last Friday.

Tremblay is the only councillor, along with Mayor Tim Thomas, who voted against the resolution at a special meeting on April 16.

On Monday, a spokesperson with the Municipal Affairs office in Montreal refused to comment when contacted by The 1510 West, while questions submitted to the ministry have gone unanswered.

However, one motivation for the resolution that has been driving seven councillors who voted in favour of the move is coming into clearer focus – their frustration with the mayor.

Although the wording of the resolution adopted last month states that deterioration of the climate at city hall cannot be attributed to “a single person, nor a group of elected officials,” councillors have since made it clear they blame Thomas.

“The problem is our mayor, plain and simple,” said councillor Eric Stork in an interview with The 1510 West. “Everybody is done,” he said in frustration.

“The mayor doesn’t know how to be a mayor,” said councillor Brent Cowan in a separate interview. “He only knows how to be against things.”

During the special meeting April 16 councillor Cynthia Homan, who also voted in favour of the resolution, pointed to a “lack of leadership” when answering a resident’s question on the need for the resolution.

Thomas, however, is pushing back.

“If I hold blame, it’s because I’ve defended what my supporters elected me to do,” Thomas said in an interview with The 1510 West on Monday, which was to slow down development to give the city time to revise its planning bylaws, a process that continues since a development freeze was imposed in 2022.

When questioned about his obligation to represent the interests of all residents, including those who did not vote for him in the last election, he added: “So you have to compromise, which I am willing to do.”

But finding compromise has been elusive.

According to Tremblay, one of the reasons for the lack of agreement is that it is not clear what the majority of council is pushing for, except undermining the mayor in the eyes of the public.

“Having lived in this environment for more than two years, I simply can’t believe this resolution’s being tabled for the sake of peace, love and understanding,” Tremblay said in explaining his opposition to the resolution at the April 16 meeting. “This is brute force given the sequence of events that I’ve witnessed and seen in the past. It’s a cannon shot to end political opposition and affect the 2025 election.”

In an interview last week he elaborated: “I was getting tired of these kind of moves – every few weeks, every few months,” he said, referring to a list of events that have punctuated public discussion, including members of council publicly rebuking former councillor Erin Tedford before she resigned in early 2023, councillors walking out of public meetings, calls for the mayor’s resignation and what he has described as “non-stop chirping on Facebook.”

“All of these things have come in a sequence,” Tremblay said. “I see this as an extension of this continuum,” he added, pointing to the call for Municipal Affairs to intervene, which he described as “a political manoeuvre hiding behind a ‘let’s be friends gesture.’”

Tremblay added that the majority of council has the votes to do what it wants on council. “They could take anything out of the RCI,” he said, referring the development freeze. “They didn’t have to vote for it.”

When questioned about the climate of political discord, he said there were a variety of options to seek dialogue other than asking the provincial government to intervene and create uncertainty. But none of his council colleagues ever reached out to him to discuss the topic.

“I see this whole thing as a political move to make sure Tim Thomas is crippled for the next election,” he said.

To the councillors who oppose the mayor he said: “They don’t stand for anything. They are too busy electioneering.”

As for Stork, he claims one of the biggest issues that needs to be addressed is how council meetings are conducted, pointing to the mayor, as chair of the meeting, allowing residents to criticize and, what he claims, “insinuate things.”

“It’s turned into a charade,” Stork said, referring to public meetings.

Stork admits he has spoken to officials with Municipal Affairs on several occasions, and claims the city’s administration is not receiving guidance from council, a function, he claims, should be handled by the mayor.

“Hopefully, this will all come out,” he said, referring to the report that he anticipates will result from Municipal Affairs’ intervention.

Cowan echoed the complaints levelled at the mayor, saying the city lacks what he called “senior high-level decision-making,” and said question period during public council meetings “has turned into a complete cockup.”

“It’s not supposed to be a debate,” he added.

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