CALEB NICKERSON

PONTIAC July 10, 2019

The Mayor of Grand Calumet Island, Serge Newberry, is seeking more transparency and accountability for the MRC Pontiac’s committees.

The young mayor spoke with THE EQUITY on June 27 about his efforts to introduce a mandatory policy that defines each committee’s mandate and structure. He said the Grand Calumet council had recently introduced a similar process, but the MRC has yet to do the same.

He also said that the council of mayors isn’t given enough background information on the resolutions they are passing, that come to the table as a recommendation from a committee. He gave a recent example from the administration committee.

“We hired someone last year and it was controversial because [their salary] was more than the last person was going to make in that position,” he said, noting the pay increase was about 20 per cent. “The administration committee’s like, ‘Oh it’s because this person is the perfect fit for us, [they’re] super qualified, all this.’ But we haven’t seen [their] resume. Whenever it comes to us, it comes in as a recommendation from the administration committee to hire this person.”

Newberry noted that he has requested additional documentation concerning various resolutions on numerous occasions. He said there’s nothing necessarily wrong with delegating work to different groups, but insisted on more documentation being available to the rest of council when these committees bring their recommendations to the table.

“You have to trust that committee, which is ok, as long as there’s a signed document that says the committee takes responsibility for this,” he said. “Then, ok, at least somebody’s responsible. Now, it’s me that passes it, it’s all on me … It doesn’t make sense. [The mayors] can’t offer criticism if they don’t have access to documents.”

He said that the mayors should be getting the documentation in advance of the meeting, so they have a chance to review it before they vote on it. Since the plenary and public meetings were moved to the same day, Newberry said the agenda is typically full, and asking questions is seen as delaying the process.

“They fit us all in one day, two meetings,” he said. “We have like 20 points so we have to rush through them. As soon as you start a conversation, you feel like you’re holding everything up. The other mayors want to get out of there, they want to get through it. I complain that we don’t get the information beforehand, nobody cares. They told me at the MRC that nobody asked for documents except [me]. That’s a problem.”

He also expressed frustration with the prevalence of English at the MRC meetings and said that it could be a barrier to a unilingual Francophone. He had previously requested the MRC look into a live-translation service, but it was turned down, as it was projected to cost approximately $50,000 per year.

“I’m at the MRC and somebody French, only French, does not have access to the higher power. He can’t go there because they’re not speaking his language,” he said. “That’s the object of [Bill 101], to make the bosses and all the companies work in French so that language would never be a barrier to a French-speaking person. Even though that law’s in place, all of our meetings are 100 per cent in English and I can’t speak in French without somebody mixing up my words.”

Though Pontiac Warden Jane Toller is not fluently bilingual, the staff at the MRC are and they routinely field questions at public meetings in French. Newberry said that a live-translation service would be a worthy investment, and has potential beyond the monthly meetings.

“[They could] make it available … it would be used for a lot more than just a mayor’s council,” he said. “To me it’s still a good investment, but that’s the way they brush it off.”

Newberry added the language barrier at the MRC also likely extends to higher levels of government, as even he, a Francophone, is seen as “English” elsewhere in the province, due to his accent.

“Even me when I go to Quebec City they see me as an English person,” he said. “They sort of block me off, I feel it.”