Efforts to force the resignation of Brownsburg-Chatham‘s mayor have been put to rest.
At the monthly council meeting in April 2018, council unanimously passed a motion demanding Mayor Catherine Trickey’s resignation amid allegations she had authorized expenses without council’s consent, and that she had given confidential information in an interview with a journalist from a Lachute newspaper.
The motion called for Trickey to resign within 48 hours, which she did not do.
At the January 2019 council meeting, the motion was withdrawn, but two councillors, Sylvie Décosse and Kévin Maurice, were absent.
During question period at the February 5 council meeting, resident and former councillor Kevin Bush asked Décosse and Maurice if they had supported rescinding the motion. Both councillors said they were in favour.
Maurice said much of the animosity that led to the motion at the time resulted from the relative inexperience of what was still a newly elected council.
“We’re working good,” he said about the current relationship councillors have with the mayor.
Trickey said she is very satisfied about the motion being withdrawn.
The mayor, along with Director-General Hervé Rivet have noted that it is not legally feasible for a municipal council to force the resignation of a mayor using motions like the one that was passed.
According to Canada’s constitution, municipalities are an exclusively provincial responsibility, and each province can enact laws governing its municipalities.
The Québec Municipal Code, which is the province’s law outlining the responsibilities and powers of councils, does not contain provisions for resolutions demanding the resignation of mayors.
