Lacolle has to recover the unpaid fees of its ex-mayor

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Roland-Luc Béliveau, ex-mayor of Lacolle

Matthew Payen

Saturday, 3 march, 2018 01:00

UPDATE
Saturday, 3 march, 2018 01:00

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The ministry of municipal Affairs sum the Town of Lacolle, a claim for unpaid fees by its former mayor for 2015.

In Quebec, citizens must pay their municipal taxes within 30 days of the mailing of the invoice by the City.

But at Lacolle, the ex-mayor Roland-Luc Béliveau has postponed the deadline for three years without the municipality’s intervention.

An unacceptable situation, according to the commissioner for complaints from the ministry, Richard Villeneuve, who recalls in a letter sent on 21 February in the city of Montérégie that” a municipality may not […] to be a credit of the taxes owed by a taxpayer “.

Controversy

It is a new blow to Mr. Béliveau, whose mandate from 2013 to 2017 has been punctuated by multiple controversies.

He had so nearly lost his position as mayor in 2014 because, according to the attorney general of Quebec, his principal residence was not in Lacolle, in the months preceding his election. He has also been sentenced last September to a 30 day suspension due to a conflict of interest.

Finally, the Commission municipale du Québec has concluded last month that the ex-mayor had committed 18 violations of the ethics in 2014 and 2015, including a refund of the meal without being so in the exercise of its functions.

Inaction

In his letter, the complaints commissioner denounces the inaction of the City. Under the municipal Code of Québec, the latter may collect the unpaid taxes ” in the middle of the seizure and the sale of all the goods and chattels of such person found on the territory of the municipality “, he recalls.

The City may also initiate proceedings before the Court of Québec or the municipal court, ” said Mr. Villeneuve.

If the municipality does not act, it has the duty to transmit the information about the owner refusing to accept the MRC, will offer for sale the property.

However, the commissioner notes that the municipality has not acted in 2016 and 2017.

But the situation will change, according to the new mayor Jacques Lemaistre-Caron.

“[Recover these taxes] will be a priority for us, and of the procedures have already begun, ” he said in an interview. It is our role to do so and it is not normal that this has not been done before. “

Without disclosing the sum that Mr. Béliveau has to Lacolle, Mr. Lemaistre-Caron speaks of a ” good amount “. He stated that the unpaid taxes relate to the three housing of the ex-mayor.

The Newspaper has not been able to speak yesterday to Mr. Béliveau.