By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Several months before the October 2021 municipal elections in Saint-Étienne-de-Bolton, seven community activists and volunteers, who knew each other from around town – postal worker David Auclair, furniture maker and former councillor Harry Bird, animal refuge manager Anne-Marie Demers, engineer Nicolas Berger, medical equipment installer Joël Brulotte, young farmer Alexandre Berger and financial advisor James Penny – came together to form the Équipe Stéphanoise slate.

In a summary of their platform posted on social media, they “promise[d] … to ensure the conservation of landscapes, heritage and natural areas; encourage resilience initiatives, local and healthy agriculture, sustainable food autonomy; stimulate networking and sharing of knowledge and skills [and] maintain village security in a spirit of kindness and mutual aid.”

All seven were elected by acclamation, alongside two independent councillors, and Auclair was sworn in as mayor. However, by the end of January 2024, all but two – acting mayor Bird and Alexandre Berger – had stepped down, leaving the village of about 700 people one resignation away from being placed under administration by the Commission municipal du Québec (CMQ). A byelection is scheduled March 10, the town’s second in less than a year.

Bird, the only member of the slate with previous political experience, said it was “hard to say” what derailed the ambitions of Équipe Stéphanoise. “Definitely family, work and municipal life are hard to conciliate,” he said. He and others also cited increasing regulatory requirements, pressure from constituents and staff turnover as problems – the town has had five different directors general since 2021.

While few municipalities have been as troubled by mass resignations as Saint-Étienne-de-Bolton, out of all the municipal councillors elected or re-elected across the province in 2021, nearly one in ten has resigned, according to Elections Quebec data parsed by La Tribune. Smaller municipalities – where the offices of mayor and councillor are not full-time jobs – seem to be most affected. La Tribune’s findings are no surprise for several of the former councillors, who cited untenable work-life balance as their main reason for leaving.

“We don’t want to let anyone down, and we want to honour our commitments, but at a certain point, it becomes a mental health issue,” said Demers, a mother of two. “I used to be so motivated, but I’m not anymore.” She said she was proud of her team’s achievements – making the municipality certified bee-friendly and equipping it with a boat-washing station – but had no regrets about stepping down.

“I’d say I was working 20 to 25 hours a month [as a councillor], not counting reading documents or participating in public council meetings or answering constituent requests,” said Brulotte, 37, whose day job requires him to be on the road a lot. “Others were working closer to 40. Constituents also expect us to sit on committees and participate in community groups.” Demers and Nicolas Berger said they were quickly overwhelmed by the demands on their time, especially during a time of heavy staff turnover; Berger said he felt he “wasn’t up to standard” because he lacked time to read the hundreds of pages of documents put in front of him.

“You need to be rich or semi-retired or have a very flexible schedule … or you need to sacrifice a good amount of your personal time,” said Brulotte. “Do a student, a parent with a full-time job and a semi-retired 60-year-old widower all have the same opportunity to do well on council? They don’t … and that leaves large parts of the population unrepresented.”

Younès Boukala is president of the Union des municipalités québécoises (UMQ) young elected officials commission. He said his own job as borough councillor in the Montreal district of Lachine “is part time…but can easily take 35 hours a week.” He said the decision of young working parents not to see out their council terms is “sad but understandable,” amid the pressures of work-life balance, slow-moving bureaucracy and social media vitriol. “We are working on developing tools to attract [young elected officials] and care for them,” he said.

Jacques Demers (no relation to Anne-Marie Demers) is mayor of Sainte-Catherine-de-Hatley and president of the Fédération québécoise des municipalités. He said it was “sad” to see councillors, especially young and enthusiastic councillors, jump ship around the province. “If we talk about day-care centres when we’re all 60-year-olds around the table, of course we know what a day-care centre is, but if it’s something that affects you personally [as a young parent] you’re going to fight for it.”