Smith moves vote that ousts city council chair Martin

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

There was a bit of drama to start off the regular Quebec City council meeting on March 18.

Jackie Smith, the councillor for Limoilou and leader of Transition Québec, proposed a vote to remove Louis Martin, the councillor for Cap-Rouge–Laurentien, as the chair of council sessions.

Martin had recently left the opposition Québec d’abord caucus over unspecified differences, and had been courted by potential mayoral candidate Sam Hamad.

Another Québec d’abord councillor, Isabelle Roy, who represents Robert-Giffard district, also now sits as an independent after being booted from the party caucus for having discussed her political future with Hamad.

The motion to remove Martin was approved, with three councillors, Roy and the two members from Équipe priorité Québec, voting against.

The vice-chair of the council, Steve Verret, the long-serving councillor for Lac-Saint- Charles–Saint-Émile, accepted the proposal to replace Martin. Verret was elected in 2021 under the banner of former mayor Régis Labeaume’s party, but defected to the ruling Québec Forte et Fière (QFF) party of Mayor Bruno Marchand. Verret has decided not to run again in the November election.

Contacted by the QCT, Martin said about his ouster, “I’m surprised and disappointed. A few months ago, Ms. Smith asked for my removal because I was ‘too partial.’ This time she mentioned it was because I am too independent. But it’s a decision made by the city council; I respect it.”

In explaining her move to remove Martin, Smith said, “It was not a question of competence” and that Martin had done “an excellent job as chair.” She said that it was “a question of the role of chair” of the council, and now that Martin has shifted allegiances, council needs to know where the chair stands on certain issues.

Smith said, “I was uncomfortable with some of the actions you took as chair, but at least we could see [where you stood]. With the political decisions you made, we’re not certain.”

Équipe priorité Québec Coun. Stevens Melançon, angered at the removal of “a neutral and rigorous chairperson,” took a shot at Smith, saying she is “ready to denounce the authorities in place and political manoeuvring, except when it suits her.”

Melançon said, “Our role is to defend a healthy municipal democracy, not to be extras in a theatre where everything is predetermined.”

Roy said, “It’s hard not to see reprisals in this gesture from Québec d’abord, Transition Québec and Québec Forte et Fière … I expected a little better from my colleagues on city council.”

Opposition and Québec d’abord leader Claude Villeneuve said, “To judge the chair’s neutrality, you have to know … at what point … there is a bias or not.”

Villeneuve said Martin’s change in political affiliation “leads us to have doubts about” meetings chaired “by someone whose intentions and point of view we do not know.”

No one from the ruling QFF party spoke to the motion to remove Martin.

Losing the position means Martin will have $10,000 less remuneration for council service.

When he left the chair after his ouster, Martin took the seat next to Smith and they exchanged a few polite words.

At many points during the meeting, councillors were drowned out by blaring truck horns from a group of protesting blue-collar workers outside City Hall.