When the President of the Office de Consultation Publique de Montréal (OCPM) appointed Guy Grenier as Secretary General, He struggled to emerge from a political-legal saga in which he was entangled in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
The situation has caused many headaches for this community on Montreal’s south shore and cost Johannine taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.
“It is certain that this sad story has collected very considerable public funds and that is something we never wish for,” says the municipality’s former general manager, François Vaillancourt.
In 2017, Guy Grenier ran for the local elections in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu on the team of his childhood friend Alain Laplante. The latter wins his elections, but Mr. Grenier bites the dust.
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Mr. Laplante nevertheless appointed him head of his office. Tensions quickly arose between Mr. Grenier and the city’s general manager, François Vaillancourt.
Mr. Grenier is dismissed from office after just a few months because he puts the interests of the mayor, his childhood friend, above those of the city.
Mayor Laplante rejected the dismissal and reinstated his friend in office.
This intervention by Alain Laplante earned him a 95-day suspension from his functions by the Quebec Municipal Commission due to a conflict of interest.
Mr Grenier, for his part, has expanded the legal avenues to challenge this dismissal.
Although he was still grappling with this legal saga last year, the new OCPM president, Isabelle Beaulieu, considered him the “best candidate” for the position of OCPM general secretary. She admits that no job posting has been created, but says she went out to dinner with some potential candidates.
“He is a man of integrity. His past is his past. It was the best application for the office,” Ms. Beaulieu assured in an interview on Wednesday.
duplicate
During his short tenure as chief of staff, the city of Saint-Jean learned that Mr. Grenier was still at the helm of Ki3 and thus had a dual job.
“Executives were subject to conventions and standards regarding their employment in the city and it was expressly stated that duplication of work was not permitted in the city,” explains François Vaillancourt.
In 2018, Mr. Grenier therefore “transferred” his business to Isabelle Beaulieu, now President of the OCPM.
Ms. Beaulieu refused to tell us whether she had given any amount of money to purchase the business.
This entire saga has left several city employees shaken. The former managing director himself had a two-month break from work in 2019.
“It was exhausting, I was a bit of a scapegoat for this sad story. Not just me, but also other members of my team,” says Mr. Vaillancourt.
While he was still contesting his dismissal in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Guy Grenier also carried out trips and mandates for the Office de Consultation Publique de Montréal.
As we revealed this week, he was recruited as an employee by Dominique Ollivier, Valérie Plante’s current right-hand man, without any recruitment process. The latter was president of the OCPM at the time.
In 2018, he went on a mission to Haiti. Then, in 2019, he accompanied Ms. Ollivier to Mexico. Guy Grenier’s wife was present on this trip.
Already known in Saint-Jean
Even before this whole saga, Guy Grenier had already made a name for himself in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
A complaint filed with the Quebec Municipal Commission says he monopolized the municipal council’s question hours from 2013 to 2017.
In 2015, he was even expelled by police officers for “bad behavior and lack of respect.”