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Several women from the Town of Two Mountains, including a member of the town council and the owner of a local daycare centre, have joined forces, with the purpose of questioning decisions made by Mayor Marc Lauzon, and drawing attention to what they feel are his inadequacies as the town's top elected official.
Unhappy with mayor
Councillor Nathalie Chayer, who most recently caused a stir in town council when she suggested town employees had been tampering with her e-mail communications, and daycare owner Ginette Raymond, who heated things up last year during council meetings when her plans to expand her daycare were opposed by local residents who had signed a petition, are the group's founders.
At a recent press conference held in Two Mountains, the women denounced the fact that since the departure of the town's former director-general, Maude Lefebvre, last January, there's been no followup to work done by a committee for which Chayer is responsible, dealing with women and municipal issues. They say Lauzon had mentioned during an earlier town council meeting that there would be an update on its work by last Jan. 31.
Chayer losing patience
"In view of the evident lack of interest by Marc Lauzon in this issue, I believe we have been more than patient," Chayer said in a statement. "So now, still believing strongly that such a committee is indispensible in the midst of our community, I have the obligation to serve these women who are mayors, ministers, elected officials or active citizens. Also, I cannot help but also say that the minister Nathalie Normandeau herself supported me and the cause of women in Quebec, as well as Mme Hélêne Robert, and several others."
Chayer used the occasion to reiterate her concern about e-mails sent to her by residents, which she claims town employees may be opening without her consent. "The fact that I am a woman and I am the only representative of the opposition seems to irritate Marc Lauzon," she said. "It is clear that this situation makes the work that I wish to accomplish with the citizens of my district much more difficult." Raymond, the owner of the Gare-Gouille daycare on Baudoin Street, said she wanted to draw attention to the apparent lack of transparency on the part of the Lauzon administration.
Transparency an issue
She said it has been a year since she's been trying without success to negotiate with the mayor so that she can open a second daycare centre in Two Mountains. She said she learned through local media that a piece of land belonging to the town had been sold without going to tender to another daycare operator. She said she found it overwhelming that Lauzon would have acted thus and questioned why the mayor did not publicly announce the sale of the land in order to assure the town got a better price. Chayer said that Lauzon had better think seriously about his actions and start showing more transparency.
Predicts election fallout
"With a year to go to the next election, if nothing is done, this administration will be severely judged by the population of Two Mountains," she said. At Two Mountains town council meeting on Aug. 9 last year, Raymond grilled pro-mayor Martin Bigras about a zoning derogation she applied for in order to meet municipal requirements for the construction work Although the daycare was located in a building on Baudoin, she wanted to use an adjacent house she owned for that purpose. Several of the neighbours on Baudouin had signed a petition which they submitted to the town. Faced with the resistance, the town didn't want to issue her a building permit.
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