Here’s how much Plante and other former Montreal politicians made upon leaving office

Luc Rabouin and Montreal mayor Valerie Plante attend the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in Montreal, Sunday, March 16, 2025. Rabouin has been elected leader of Projet Montreal, the governing party at city hall, and will succeed Plante and run for mayor in municipal elections in November. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

The now-former mayors and city councillors who either decided they would not run again or lost in the Nov. 2 Montreal municipal elections were paid a total of $6.5 million upon leaving office.

The city confirmed to CTV News the payouts first reported in the Journal de Montreal, which included over $310,000 for former mayor Valérie Plante in combined severance and transitional payments.

Plante was entitled to $95,984.40 in severance and $214,028.92 in a transition allowance after leaving office.

Elected officials are entitled to receive payments upon leaving office as they transition to private life.

In 2018, Montreal paid out just under $4 million to elected officials, including $193,874 to former mayor Denis Coderre.

The Quebec Court of Appeal ruled in 2021 that former mayor Michael Applebaum was entitled to keep his $268,000 severance, despite being found guilty of corruption charges.

If Premier Francois Legault decides to stay in the National Assembly as an MNA until the end of his term in October, he would be entitled to an allowance of $300,000. If he left office entirely before the end of his term, he would forfeit the equivalent of one year’s salary ($300,069).

A 2018 Federation of Quebec Municipalities study found that most elected officers were “generally dissatisfied with their remuneration,” and that their responsibilities are more important than the remuneration at the time, causing “real frustration.”

“It is proposed that every mayor of a municipality receive a minimum remuneration of at least $1,000 a month (including the expense allowance) to acknowledge their contribution to the community,” the report reads.

Municipalities, however, can determine their own payments, the report says.

Former Montreal elected officials received the following sums:

• Valérie Plante: $310,013.32
• Émilie Thuillier: $302,275.20
• Benoit Dorais: $301,025.52
• Luc Rabouin: $229,335.49
• Caroline Bourgeois: $222,719.42
• Laurence Lavigne Lalonde: $221,375.56
• Maja Vodanovic: $221,205.22
• Pierre Lessard-Blais: $216,684.48
• Magda Popeanu: $211,443.76
• Marie-Andrée Mauger: $207,257.79

-- With files from The Canadian Press.