Canada/Saint-Barnabé has an observer to turn around its financial situation

The Ministère des Affaires municipales et de l'Habitation has appointed an observer for the municipality of Saint-Barnabé to help it turn around its financial situation.

MAMH indicates that the municipality has significant shortcomings that could adversely affect its liquidity, reads the Ministry's press release.

It states that certain recommendations made by MAMH in recent years have not been followed up. This is why Quebec has decided to intervene, it is explained.

Minister Andrée Laforest has appointed Jean-Sébastien Girard as an observer. At the end of his 12-week mandate, Girard will produce and submit a report to the Minister.

This report, it is said, will recommend measures to be put in place to ensure that the municipal council makes the necessary decisions to turn around the municipality's financial situation.

Over the next few months, the observer will have access to the municipality's office, to any document and will be able to demand the necessary information from any civil servant, employee or council member.

Minister Laforest has written to say that she is taking the necessary steps to help the municipality.

Citizens should not have to suffer the consequences of shortcomings in Saint-Barnabé's administrative management," she says. In this sense, she expects the municipality to cooperate.

In a Facebook post, Saint-Barnabé mayor Guillaume Laverdière writes that this is good news for the municipality, thanking Andrée Laforest's decision.

In June 2024, Mr. Laverdière had submitted a resolution to the municipal council asking the Commission municipale du Québec to conduct an audit of all the municipality's departments.

For him, it was essential to take an objective look at the state of the municipality in order to properly rebuild Saint-Barnabé after years of instability, writes the man who has been asking MAMH to intervene in Saint-Barnabé for the past two years.

Among the events that sowed discord and created tensions within the municipal council: the case of Saint-Barnabé's general manager, Martin Beaudry, who failed to deliver the locality's budget by January 31, 2022.

His dismissal and subsequent reinstatement were also the subject of controversy in the municipality. Some citizens even called for the mayor's resignation.

Source: ici.radio-canada.ca/