‘Very worrying, especially in a city with a history of corruption,’ says opposition’s De Cotis
The Action Laval opposition at city hall is drawing on the controversial record of a past Laval mayor to claim the current administration suffers from a disquieting and potentially risky lack of transparency.
Party leader Achille Cifelli and David De Cotis, the AL councillor for Saint-Bruno, are unhappy that deputy mayor Ray Khalil voted with council colleagues against an AL proposal to ask the Quebec government to repeal section 114.1.1 of the Cities and Towns Act (CTA).
The section is an exceptional provision that applies only to Laval and limits elected officials’ access to certain types of municipal information.
Submitted by De Cotis, the proposal asked the city administration to contact Quebec to end the exception, which dates back to 1996 when Gilles Vaillancourt was mayor.
“The deputy mayor had the opportunity to speak in favour of greater transparency, but he chose to vote against it,” said De Cotis.
‘A history of corruption’
“This is very worrying, especially in a city with a history of corruption like Laval,” he added. “Elected officials have the right to access all available information to make the best decisions.”
For nearly 30 years, section 114.1.1 has exempted Laval from certain rules established by the Cities and Towns Act (CTA) to ensure the flow of information between the municipal administration and elected officials.
In a recent radio interview, Serge Lamontagne, who was appointed by Quebec to oversee Laval’s trusteeship 13 years ago, recalled that the flow of information out of Laval city hall was essentially controlled by the mayor and his director general.
Action Laval maintains that section 114.1.1 of the CTA maintains this system. The party points out that sharing information is crucial in a democratic system as it allows the opposition to play its role as a check on power. Action Laval’s leader maintains that the vote by the deputy mayor and his team demonstrateed that the issue of transparency remains critical in Laval and an unresolved issue.
‘From the Vaillancourt era’
“In 2026, it’s difficult to justify a provision inherited from the Vaillancourt era continuing to limit elected officials’ access to information,” said De Cotis.
“The municipal administration should have nothing to hide. Transparency and information sharing allow the opposition to fully play its role as a counterweight.” Action Laval also points out that Article 3 of the Cities and Towns Act allows the Quebec government to repeal the exception by decree.
The party is calling on the newly-elected Parti Québécois government to put an end to the situation and ensure that the Laval administration is subject to the same transparency rules as municipal counterparts across Quebec.
“For Action Laval, transparency is not a privilege of the executive committee; it is an essential condition for the proper functioning of municipal democracy,” the party said in a statement.
Full text of Action Laval’s proposal to repeal section 114.1.1 of the Cities and Towns Act by decree
WHEREAS sections 112 to 114.1 of the Cities and Towns Act (CTA) apply to every municipality governed by that Act, even if a provision of its charter that came into force before December 19, 1968, repeals, replaces, or amends, directly or indirectly, one or more of these sections;
WHEREAS section 114.1.1 of the CTA contains an exception that derogates from these sections and that applies only to the City of Laval;
WHEREAS this exception hinders the transparency of the City of Laval’s management by preventing the application of section 114.1;
WHEREAS this exception was introduced into the Cities and Towns Act (CTA) in 1996 solely for the cities of Laval and Hull, when Gilles Vaillancourt was mayor of Laval;
WHEREAS this exception has, without apparent justification, allowed for the centralization of city information in the hands of the mayor and his executive committee throughout the various terms of the municipal council since its enactment in 1996;
WHEREAS this exception can create an anti-democratic barrier to the management and dissemination of information to municipal councillors, and hinder their ability to make free and informed decisions.
WHEREAS the Charter of the City of Laval, adopted by the Municipal Council in 2019, does not include any provisions regarding this exception and does not incorporate the 2017 amendments to sections 319 and 474.2 of the CTA.
WHEREAS section 3 of the Cities and Towns Act (CTA) allows for the repeal of section 114.1.1 of the same Act by simple government decree.
David De Cotis proposes:
THAT the Executive Committee mandates the Director General to take steps with the Government of Quebec to have section 114.1.1 of the Cities and Towns Act repealed as soon as possible.
