Plante to seek dismissal of public consultation office president amid spending scandal
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante says she's taking steps to clean up the city's public consultation office, starting with getting rid of its president, Isabelle Beaulieu.
"We're going to clean house," Plante said Friday following a special finance commission meeting about the recent spending scandal.
The mayor addressed the controversy alongside the former head of the office, Dominique Ollivier, who stepped down on Monday as president of the city's executive committee over a recent Journal de Montreal investigation into extravagant spending while she was the president of the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM).
"I want to make it clear from the outset: the 77 outings to Alexandre's in one year, the $900 headphones, the $5,500 field hockey tickets did not take place under my presidency and are the work of the administration. I've always had too much respect for public funds to authorize this kind of spending," Ollivier said.
The newspaper reported that while she was head of the OCPM, Ollivier expensed several international trips, pricey meals, including a $347 oyster dinner in Paris and luxury office furniture. Ollivier admitted she did expense $20,000 worth of meals, but that was over a seven-year period.
"I also have on my corporate credit card, a bill for St-Hubert barbecue, that was delivered, that is $78. I’m not saying that was legitimate, what I'm saying is that if you look at the entire corpus it's different occasions of different things," she said.
Ollivier is angry she’s being accused of wasting public funds, and angry her management is being questioned.
But her successor did just that — Beaulieu said when she took over for Ollivier in early 2022, she found an organization that she said was poorly managed with little oversight, including some employees being paid 6 per cent vacation pay while getting paid vacation, and others logging full-time hours when many didn’t actually work full-time.
"It means that Montrealers are being fleeced out of their hard-earned money by people who are not just negligent but could even be unscrupulous," said Ensemble Montreal's Alan DeSousa Friday.
The mayor said it can't go on like this and will take steps next week to have Beaulieu fired and the office placed under trusteeship.
"There will be no more funding, no more money going to OCPM without us — the executive committee — looking into it," Plante said.
The opposition at City Hall says that doesn't go far enough and wants Ollivier kicked out of Projet Montreal's caucus.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'It was hell': Israeli mother held hostage with her children describes 51 days in captivity
Hagar Brodutch, her three children and four-year-old neighbour were kidnapped by Hamas-led militants from their home in Kfar Aza, Israel on Oct. 7 and held for 51 days. They were released in November, but Brodutch says her thoughts are never far from those still being held in Gaza.
BREAKING Teen dies after being hit by train in N.W. Calgary
A teenager has died after being hit by a train in northwest Calgary on Tuesday afternoon.
'Unruly passenger' forces WestJet flight to make emergency landing in B.C.
A WestJet flight heading to Calgary had to make an emergency landing in northern B.C. Monday due to an incident involving an 'unruly passenger,' Mounties say.
New COVID-19 subvariants become the dominant strains in Canada
More than four years after COVID-19 effectively shut down the world, two new variants of COVID-19 have become the dominant strains of the novel coronavirus in Canada.
'It's his vacation too': Jimmy the baby goat joins 2-week road trip across Canada
After Jimmy the baby goat was shunned by his mother, a New Brunswick man took the kid on a two-week road trip across Canada.
The double-level airplane seat is back. This time, there’s a first-class version
It’s the airplane seat design that launched a thousand memes and kickstarted a media storm. And now the double-level seat is back – only this time, with a twist.
Widespread theft costing Canada's retail industry dearly: experts
The Retail Council of Canada wants to put a stop to widespread theft within the retail industry, and industry leaders are meeting this week to find solutions.
Former South Dakota mayor charged with triple homicide
Three people were shot to death in a small South Dakota town, and a former law officer who once served as the town's mayor is charged in the killings.
Debunking the 'anti-sunscreen' movement: Doctors say TikTok trend is dangerous
Dermatologists are sounding the alarm about misinformation from the anti-sunscreen movement, saying not wearing sunscreen can cause cancer and other problems.