She had already made initial contact, by email, with the council’s elected officials. A first informal meeting must take place before the council meeting on Tuesday. An important meeting was planned with the City’s Director General, Simon Rousseau, a little later in the day. She will also have to quickly put together her cabinet.
In this regard, Ms. Marquis-Bissonnette confirmed to the Right that François Léveillé will act as chief of staff. The latter had already assumed this role in the Action Gatineau opposition cabinet since the election of France Bélisle. He was also one of the political advisors in the cabinet of former mayor Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin.
François Léveillé has worked at Action Gatineau since the mandates of Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin. He now becomes chief of staff. (Archives Le Droit)
The budget of the mayor’s office is 1.68 million in 2024. Added to this is the budget of the designated advisor [cabinet de l’opposition] which reaches $840,000. Technically, the mayor could decide to repatriate this amount to the mayor’s office given that there is no longer an opposition party in Gatineau.
No decision in this direction has yet been taken, but Ms. Marquis-Bissonnette intends to have a cabinet different from the one that former mayor Bélisle had. “There will be a person in the cabinet specifically for seniors, it was a commitment on my part and it takes that,” she confirmed. I also want to have someone who will be the watchdog on environmental matters, who will force us to have this angle, who will remind us of good practices and who will be on the lookout for innovations. It will also require someone responsible for intergovernmental relations. This will be a key person to maintain our relations with Quebec and Ottawa.
A discussion with the CEO
Maude Marquis-Bissonnette is scheduled to meet the director general of the City of Gatineau, Simon Rousseau, in the afternoon of Monday. The latter who was chosen by former mayor France Bélisle, in the spring of 2022, succeeded Marie-Hélène Lavoie. He should expect a different style of leadership from the new mayor.
The Director General of the City of Gatineau with municipal councilors Anik Des Marais and Isabelle N. Miron (Patrick Woodbury/Archives Le Droit)
“The vision that I have for the city and the functioning between politics and administration will differ from Ms. Bélisle,” noted Ms. Marquis-Bissonnette. At this point, I believe that Mr. Rousseau is a vector of positive changes in the administration. What I hear is that he is a very positive person, that he is competent, but we need to talk to each other. I think that the big challenge for cities is that they are transforming and that they have more responsibilities, but that the tools of governance are not evolving at the same pace. We need good collaboration between elected officials and the administration. You have to be able to trust each other and tell each other the real deal. You have to row in the same direction. This will be the nature of my first discussion with Mr. Rousseau.”
What role for the independents?
As for the composition of the executive committee, the designated mayor specifies that it is still too early to make decisions to this effect. However, changes will be inevitable. It seems very unlikely that advisor Mario Aubé will retain his position as president. Ms. Marquis-Bissonnette specifies, however, that she does not intend to have an executive committee made up solely of elected officials from her party.
The designated mayor of Gatineau, Maude Marquis-Bissonnette. (Etienne Ranger/Le Droit)
“I would like to have people from Action Gatineau, but there will also be independents,” she said. There are people on the board who have a lot of experience. I think of Daniel Champagne and people like Marc Bureau, with whom I built my environment program. I’m not saying today that they will be on the executive committee, I’m not there yet, but I would like to keep these people close to me in order to be able to properly advance the issues at the board. It’s a short mandate, there are a lot of files. I want to do business, but also leave my mark. We must hurry to make good decisions.”
Ms. Marquis-Bissonnette also wants to quickly take advantage of Action Gatineau’s new recruit, Catherine Craig-St-Louis, who was elected on Sunday in the Carrefour-de-l’Hôpital district.
The arrival of the trained urban planner, already well known in Gatineau, arouses great enthusiasm within Action Gatineau.
“Catherine is an extraordinary woman who knows the City’s files well, she is brilliant, competent and hardworking,” said Ms. Marquis-Bissonnette. I will want to put it to good use and give it files to allow us to move forward. Asked whether Ms. Craig-St-Louis could obtain a seat on the urban planning advisory committee (CCU), the designated mayor repeated that she had not yet reached the nomination stage.
The swearing-in of Ms. Marquis-Bissonnette and Ms. Craig-St-Louis must take place on June 18.
