Sudbury reprimands one of its city councillors, but opts not to dock his pay

Greater Sudbury reprimands city councillor Ward 3 Coun. Gerry Montpellier has been reprimanded by Greater Sudbury city council for revealing confidential information.

Sudbury — A city councillor in Greater Sudbury is being officially reprimanded by his fellow councillors, but they will not be docking his pay.

Ward 3 Coun. Gerry Montpellier stood to lose about $6,600, but Tuesday night, councillors decided a reprimand was enough.

Montpellier was sanctioned by Sudbury's integrity commissioner, Robert Swayze. Swayze ruled that a letter from Montpellier to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and a subsequent report on the letter by CTV News, "were purposely an attempt to injure the professional reputation of the CAO."

The controversy began at a Dec. 21, 2020, meeting when Greater Sudbury CAO Ed Archer accidentally made a private chat with another staffer public. In that chat, Archer characterized Montpellier's behaviour as "buffoonish" and hostile.

"The comment was ultimately streamed to the public and media but redacted from the recording of the meeting," Swayze's report said. "The CAO has apologized on several occasions. As improperly pointed out by the respondent to CTV News, the CAO’s mistake was dealt with in camera. That should have been the end of it."

While apologizing after the report found he leaked privileged information, Montpellier said at the very least, he should have been included in the investigation.

“Here’s where I’ve got a problem with this," he said. "Mr. Swayze chose to not interview or contact me in any shape, form or fashion. He chose to make this decision without contact whatsoever.”

The integrity commissioner's investigation found that Montpellier had released information from a closed-door meeting, and had also tarnished Archer's reputation.