Opposition councillors denounce ‘toxic’ City Hall work environment
Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
editor@qctonline.com
Several opposition councillors at Quebec City Hall have sounded the alarm in recent days about what they describe as a toxic work environment.
On Feb. 21, Québec D’Abord (QD) Coun. Alicia Despins announced she had filed a complaint with the Commission municipale du Québec (CMQ) against Clément Laberge, Mayor Bruno Marchand’s chief of staff, for what she described as his failure to address problematic behaviour by several members of Marchand’s Québec Forte et Fière (QFF) caucus.
“I made two official complaints [to Laberge] and reached out to him a few other times regarding intimidating behaviour,” she said. The incidents include raised voices and an alleged “chest-bumping incident” involving QFF Coun. Steeve Verret and Équipe Priorité Québec (EPQ) Coun. Stevens Mélançon.
“It would be easier if we could [attribute the problem to] just one person – it’s more of a cultural problem,” Despins told the QCT. “The incident with [Verret] is not something that concerns me personally, but it isn’t something that makes me feel safe either.”
Melançon said Verret “raised his voice and got two inches from my face” after a Feb. 6 council meeting, upset over a comment Mélançon had made on a Facebook thread involving another councillor’s ex-partner.
On Facebook, Verret denied there had been any physical contact between the two men, and accused Mélançon of being the first to raise his voice.
“These incidents are not criminal, or even something you could sue someone over – these are insidious things,” commented QD leader Claude Villeneuve, who said Despins had the party’s full support. “If you feel a person is threatening your safety, you won’t want to sit down with that person and work together.”
Marchand’s QFF caucus was in the minority when they were first elected in 2021; over the next two years, several QD and EPQ councillors “crossed the floor” to join QFF. Villeneuve, Mélançon and Transition Québec leader Jackie Smith trace a clear line between QFF’s march toward majority territory and the deterioration of the City Hall work environment. “There have been a lot of floor crossers, a lot of baggage and a lot of old fights [coming to the surface],” Smith said. She acknowledged she was “not dying to go to meetings, because they are so acrimonious, and it’s hard to keep the debates political.”
Marchand, for his part, told reporters he was concerned about “creating a respectful work environment for everyone” and promised to collaborate with the CMQ investigation, but said he and his party had no intention to apologize. Luc Monty, the city’s director general, met with the chiefs of staff of all parties on Feb. 22. City spokesperson François Moisan said in a brief statement that no official complaints had been filed with Monty’s office. “However, following the allegations made to the CMQ by a Québec D’abord councillor, the director general considered it essential to meet the parties. … Maintaining a healthy climate is a shared re- sponsibility for all people work- ing for the Ville de Québec.” He said councillors would receive additional ethics training in the coming weeks.
The next day, Marchand asked city council president Louis Martin to call a closed-door meeting of all councillors to address the situation before the next council meeting.
Quebec City is not the only municipality to struggle with a difficult work environment. On Feb. 22, the day Despins’ allegations surfaced, Gatineau Mayor France Bélisle resigned, ostensibly “to preserve [her] health for the future, because political life weakens a person.” Sherbrooke mayor Evelyne Beaudin recently returned from a three-month leave of absence, and councillors there have requested an external mediator to help “create a healthier climate” at City Hall. Across the province, nearly 10 per cent of all mayors and councillors who took office in 2021 have since resigned. With the next municipal elections on the horizon, Smith and others worry about being able to recruit candidates. “There are limits to what you can do in a training day – we need cultural change,” Smith said.
“There are definite issues with employees and elected officials,” said Jacques Demers, mayor of Sainte-Catherine-de- Hatley and president of the Fédération québécoise des municipalités (FQM), noting that the federation recently received $2 million in provin- cial funding for harassment prevention programs. He cited a general decline in civility, hostility from constituents and a lack of understanding of elected officials’ roles as some possible reasons for the wave of resignations. “Everyone needs to watch how they speak to each other,” he added. “We can raise our voices, but we should aim at the issue, not the person – if you’re aiming at the person, maybe you’re short of arguments.”