Canada/Lévis mayor open to reviewing rules on work climate at city hall

After Alexandre Fallu, city councillor for the Christ-Roi district in Lévis, denounced an unhealthy working climate at city hall, Mayor Gilles Lehouillier admits that civility must be improved. However, he denies the existence of a toxic environment.

The mayor agrees, however, that municipal bylaws could be reviewed to make the chairmanship of council meetings more neutral, as requested by Mr. Fallu of the Repensons Lévis party.

In Lévis, as in most Quebec municipalities, council meetings are chaired by the mayor.

I may have a little rise from time to time, but apart from that, let's just say that I'm quite open and very democratic about the right of all elected officials to ask the questions they want. So on that point, I don't think I've played the role of snuff-box with elected representatives or the public.

A quote from Gilles Lehouillier, Mayor of Lévis

In a press scrum on Monday, the chief magistrate maintained that the public appearance of Repensons Lévis didn't bother him.

It's normal, there are two of them. There are a lot of us. They have less experience, so let's try to make things easier," he said.

My board was telling me that they've been looking at what's going on in other big cities, and we're light years ahead of that. We're not in a toxic situation in Lévis. Okay, maybe some people in the opposition, especially newcomers, have the impression that they're caught up in complex mechanisms," added the mayor.

City Hall, "the mayor's stronghold

Barely a year after his election, Alexandre Fallu denounced what he described as an "unhealthy atmosphere" at Lévis City Hall.

He claims that the mayor and other councillors on his team are closed to debate and tolerate discriminatory comments about his age, among other things.

As soon as you disagree with something, you feel threatened. You don't feel welcome at City Hall, and I think that needs to change," he maintains.

He points out that, during a recent committee of the whole behind closed doors, a councillor on the mayor's team allegedly said to him, "I've been doing this for 30 years; you just have a bachelor's degree in urban planning.

What do you want me to say to that? It's not the ideas, it's the staff. I want things to change. As we all know, politics isn't easy. I wasn't expecting to be greeted with flowers, but the idea of debating ideas and not people is the least I can do," confides the Christ-Roi district councillor.

In 2018, the working climate at Gilles Lehouillier's office was criticized. Three complaints of psychological harassment were filed.

Source: ici.radio-canada.ca/