Lachine city councillor booted from Projet Montreal caucus after open acrimony

Battle brews over Lachine marina People in Lachine have strong feelings – on both sides -- about the planned removal of the marina.

Montreal — Montreal's governing party, Projet Montreal, has kicked a Lachine city councillor out of caucus for "lack of collaboration and solidarity," it said in a Friday-night press release.

Julie-Pascale Provost represents the Canal district in Lachine. The months-long debate over Lachine's marina, now slated to become a waterfront park open to the public, has created open tension within the party.

Provost has opposed the project -- the only member of her party to do so -- and has complained publicly, such as in a YouTube video from late September, about the process around it.

But a Projet Montreal spokesperson said that since the election that brought the party to power, in fall 2017, Provost has had “weekly frictions,” and not just with fellow councillors.

Spokesperson Julien Acosta said Provost has clashed with elected officials in the Lachine borough, in city hall and with Projet Montreal volunteers.

She will now sit as an independent and the party will run another candidate in her seat in next year's municipal elections, Acosta said.

The vote to expel her from caucus was unanimous, according to the press release. Both the caucus and the party's board of directors took part, and the party noted in the release that the rest of the Lachine caucus also voted Provost out.

"It follows many attempts in recent months to establish a climate of collaboration," said the release. "Unfortunately, despite these attempts, Ms. Provost's lack of collaboration and solidarity greatly affected teamwork and had a negative impact on services to citizens."