Late Tuesday evening, as the Quebec City Council ended in a certain torpor, a motion without notice tabled by the official opposition gave rise to an unusual political squabble.
Alicia Despins, municipal councilor of Quebec first, submitted a short text to congratulate the firm Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton for its recent audit report on transport companies. She wanted the members of the Quebec city council to thank the independent firm which “participates in the improvement of the RTC (Réseau de transport de la Capitale)” thanks to the document it produced. Despite the obvious disbelief of several elected officials, Ms. Despins swore to her colleagues that there is “nothing political in this opinion”.
A lengthy legal debate followed. It took many minutes to find out whether this deposit required the unanimity of the members of the municipal council or a simple majority.
Rejecting this text, Pierre-Luc Lachance, vice-president of the executive committee, then explained that “it is a door that cannot be opened”. Otherwise, we should, for example, congratulate the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec Infra (CDPQI) for having recommended a tramway in its report submitted in June, he suggested, half seriously, half laughing.
Motion rejected
The two Équipe priority Québec advisors sided with the official opposition. For her part, the head of Transition Quebec, Jackie Smith, was firmly opposed. She regretted that Claude Villeneuve’s party used the “unifying” tool of motions without notice “to divide and play politics”.
In general, motions without notice are used to congratulate a distinguished citizen or to mark the death of a regional personality. They are very rarely the subject of debate and are often adopted unanimously.
Unsurprisingly, the motion proposed by Ms. Despins was rejected, since Mayor Marchand’s team has a narrow majority on the municipal council.
Published two weeks ago, the independent firm’s report placed the RTC in ninth place – out of ten – among transportation companies in Quebec in terms of financial performance. Its content again gave rise to bitter political exchanges earlier Tuesday in the day.
