Expenses of elected municipal officials | Mayor Boyer opens the door to partisan advertising paid for by public funds
Laval, Tuesday, June 3, 2025 - Parti Laval strongly denounces the adoption of the by-law L-13196Tuesday evening, paving the way for the use of public funds to finance partisan messages. According to Claude Larochelle, interim leader of Parti Laval, the mayor is giving himself an advantage " indecent "in the middle of an election year. " At a time when the public was calling for better control over spending, Mr. Boyer is taking advantage of the by-law amendment demanded by the municipal commission to promote himself with taxpayers' money, and that's unacceptable, said Mr. Larochelle, who intends to challenge Quebec on this issue.
Initially tabled at the April 1st municipal council meeting, by-law L-13196 concerning the reimbursement of research and support expenses for Ville de Laval consultants followed on from the scandals that had shrouded Quebec's third-largest city, and was intended to provide a framework for the abuse and partisan spending of public funds. In recent months, several elected officials from Mayor Boyer's and mayoral candidate Frédéric Mayer's parties had been singled out for questionable spending of public funds.
The new version of the by-law was finally adopted by a vote of 18 to 2, with only Parti Laval councillors Mr. Larochelle and Ms. Louise Lortie, councillor for Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, firmly opposing what they consider to be a "new and unacceptable by-law". drift ". During the council meeting, Ms. Lortie gave as an example a mayoral advertisement paid for by this fund the day before the council meeting, which featured several messages she deemed partisan. " I can't believe that when I ask the mayor if he considers such advertising - which praises the mayor's decisions and uses various terms to benefit his party - acceptable under his new bylaw, he doesn't hesitate for a second and says yes. It makes no sense, we're going backwards! "she stresses.
" I don't understand what Mayor Boyer wants. We have to make the best decisions for the population and the use of public funds, and that's why we agreed that this budget would not be used to convey partisan messages. Finally, a few minutes before the Council meeting, the mayor did an about-face and reversed his decision, allowing unrestricted partisan advertising! We've just gone backwards "He intends to contact the Commission municipale du Québec (CMQ) and the Minister of Municipal Affairs to shed light on the situation.
SOURCE: Office of the Official Opposition of Ville de Laval
INFORMATION : Tommy Vallée | Communications Manager
438 875 8663 │t.vallee@laval.ca