From Jan. 6 to Jan. 16, Meilleur underwent a 10-day suspension without pay after being found guilty of disrespecting some of his co-workers on multiple occasions dating back to July of 2018.

According to a municipal official who wished to remain anonymous, the investigation cost the municipality around $26,000 and the municipality wants Meilleur to pay a sum of it.

In an interview with The Equity, Meilleur said he was disappointed to hear council pass such a resolution while he was suspended because he wasn’t able to attend the meeting to discuss the matter.

“I should’ve had the right to defend myself a little bit,” he said. “But they didn’t do that because I was suspended.”

Meilleur said that, despite being accused of disrespectful on more than one occasion, he’s never meant to ruffle anyone’s feathers with municipal council, stating that Mayor Serge Newberry and his ‘select group’ have been collaborating to get him to resign ever since they’ve been in office.

The Equity contacted Mayor Serge Newberry and Director General Sabrina Larivère regarding their involvement in the situation, but they both declined to comment on the matter.

Meilleur explained that Newberry and his ‘select group’ have made it nearly impossible for council members to voice their opinions in council discussions.

He added that Newberry has personally advised him to resign, which Meilleur refused, noting that he intends on keeping his position until the end of his mandate in October of 2021.

“I was elected,” he said.

He clarified that he will only remove himself from his duties if he is told to do so in a letter from the Quebec Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MAMH).

“I’m not giving my resignation to the Mayor and his ‘select group,’” he said.

Meilleur said he doesn’t plan on paying the $15,000 sum demanded because he disagreed with the CMQ’s administrative Judge Sylvie Périard’s decision to suspend him for 10 days.

Meilleur explained that he was wrongly accused of being disrespectful and that he should’ve never been suspended, noting that his co-workers involved with the case used him as a scapegoat during the investigation.

“What she wrote in the decision, that was only one quarter of what realistically happened,” he said.

“It took someone to be found guilty and they chose me to be the guilty one,” he added. “I accepted [the suspension] to keep the peace.”

Now back at work, Meilleur said that tensions between he and his co-workers have remained high and that he has lost confidence in the municipal council. He added that the only way things can improve is for municipal council’s ‘select group’ to be overhauled with new people.

“We need to clean up the junk once and for all,” he said. “Changes need to be made. There are too many secrets.”

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