At Portage-du-Fort’s monthly council meeting on Wednesday (June 3), council introduced the public to the municipality’s new interim director general (DG), Joanne MacDonald.
Council had suspended former DG Lisa Dagenais with pay for 20 days at the previous meeting on May 13. The vote was split, with councillors Martin Hérault, Nicole Thompson and Allan Farrell voting in favour, while Dominic Bisson, Kim Elliott and Cody Coughlin voting against. Mayor Kevin Murphy cast the deciding vote in favour of suspension.
Dagenais submitted her resignation the following day, which the council accepted at the June meeting. Hérault, who introduced the motion to suspend Dagenais, said that he was not free to discuss HR issues, and couldn’t comment on the reasons for the suspension.
At a special meeting the previous Tuesday (May 26), council voted in favour of hiring MacDonald on as an interim DG. Murphy said council plans on putting out a job offer in 30 days for a permanent DG position, which MacDonald could apply for.
Council also voted to have former Portage and Waltham DG Fernand Roy temporarily assist MacDonald in her transition, for roughly 30 hours at a rate of $65/hour. Roy had assisted MacDonald earlier in the week, and helped take the minutes at the meeting.
Councillor Dominic Bisson was the only one to vote against hiring Roy. He said that MacDonald could already access free assistance by phone through the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MAMH) and questioned why they needed someone else.
“I’m just saying if she can call and get free help, we don’t really need Fern to train,” he said.
Murphy said that with MacDonald’s hiring only taking place the previous week, his intention with bringing in Roy was to address the immediate tasks as quickly as possible, and hands-on assistance from someone who previously worked at the municipality was more effective than someone over the phone.
“My biggest thing was getting this done,” he said. “We couldn’t cancel the meeting, so Monday’s thing was calling Fern in, was to get the minutes and the agenda done. She needed help with that. I don’t think MAMH would have had . . . she’d still be on the phone with them to get certain things.”
He said he believes 30 hours of support from Roy would be sufficient to get MacDonald up to speed.
Roy resigned from the Municipality of Waltham in February 2024, where he had worked since 1985. Following his resignation, the Commission Municipale de Quebec (CMQ) issued a report in August 2024 on his conduct at the municipality, detailing what it called a “serious breach of ethical and professional standards”, and “misuse of public funds”.
The CMQ report noted that Roy hired his wife as an employee, mismanaged municipal documents and asked mayors to sign stacks of blank cheques.
“This situation stemmed from a poor understanding among council members of their roles and responsibilities, as well as the operating methods adopted by the Director General,” the report stated, translated from French.
“This resulted in organizational and administrative failures within the municipal office and allowed for the implementation of irregular practices that favoured the Director General’s personal interests at the expense of the Municipality’s interests.”
When the report was published, Roy told THE EQUITY that he disagreed “with the factual findings and the conclusions included in the report.”
“I do not intend to openly contest all of the allegations that I consider wrong and defamatory against me and my wife,” he wrote.
When asked if he was aware of the report on Roy’s conduct, Murphy said council was.
It should be noted that a CMQ investigation is different from a criminal investigation, and these findings have not been tested in court.
“The findings of the facts, the conclusions and the recommendations contained in this document cannot be considered as declarations of criminal or civil liability,” the report states (translated). “Also, the rules of evidence and procedure adopted during the administrative investigation are different from those that govern the courts of justice.”
