EMILY HSUEH
ÎLE DU GRAND CALUMET
February 23, 2021
Former Île du Grand Calumet mayor Pierre Fréchette announced on Feb. 23 that he plans on running for the position once again in the election taking place later this year in November.
Fréchette — who has been a permanent resident on the island for the last seven years — announced his intention to join the race on CHIP FM, but noted that he will not be able to . . .
officially join the candidacy until the submission period is open later this year. Candidates can submit their applications in a two-week period that starts 44 days before the election date, according to the Elections Quebec website.
He has previously held the title of mayor of Calumet from 2016 – 2017, before stepping down after seven months. He cited this was due to other councillors’ misconduct.
“At the time I did put in my resignation, and I explained, these people wanted to have undue benefits while they were not serving the population, but themselves,” he said. “If they felt that intimidating people that had different vision than them, then why try and have those individuals change their ways, being in a constant battle where energies will be misused for the municipality.”
When asked for more clarification on the matter, he declined to comment further.
“I won’t dwell on that. I’m kind of fed up having to explain this over and over again … Can we not put emphasis on the future?” he said. “I took a decision that was ethically correct based on the code of ethics. They were saying, ‘Yeah, that’s all nice, but at the end of the day I’ll do what I want to do.’ But at the end of the day that’s not how you do business. So I’m kind of tired of explaining that.”
Since then, Fréchette has been on the board of directors for the CISSSO since July 2018 and also ran for Warden of the Pontiac in 2017. He said these positions have given him the experience needed to be better suited to serve his community.
“My willingness to work for the community has been still quite engaged. I’ve been around doing work with the CISSSO, part of the board of management … raising my voice when things regarding rural areas of Outaouais are concerned. So I’ve been involved,” Fréchette said. “I’ve also been a candidate for the Warden’s position in 2015. There were five candidates … and I came in last. But that for me was a great opportunity to learn about politics, to be part of a process that shows how interested I am in the Pontiac.”
If he is elected as mayor, Fréchette said he will retain his position with CISSSO unless a conflict of interest is presented.
As Fréchette told THE EQUITY, his main goal for his mayoral run is to foster an atmosphere where citizens are comfortable to participate in discourse and share ideas to better the community. He is unhappy with the current state of the council and hopes he will be able to shape it into a more collaborative one, as he explained.
“The last few years at the island have been kind of rocky and kind of shameful to see what’s happening on the council at this point. The complaints, the harassment, the allegations and stuff like that, it’s impossible to work in such an environment and to show the community that things are getting better on the island,” he said. “I want to make a difference. Transparency for the citizens, open to their ideas, and to have a better atmosphere and to better the community. So that’s why I’m involved, that’s why I’m back on track,”
He noted that that was something he failed to achieve in his time as mayor previously, and it is how he will change going into it a second time around.
“I’ll do it differently; more collaborative, more open to the public’s interest and have public consultation to have people’s input on what we can do in the next four years,” he said. “I would take the time to bring about the population of the population and bring out the obligations of working together and the principle cooperation of working together in the council itself.”
