A petition to restore Port Coquitlam Coun. Laura Dupont to a Metro Vancouver environment committee is gaining steam less than 24 hours after it was posted to change.org.
Former federal NDP candidate Christina Gower started the petition shortly after the city of Port Coquitlam announced the two-term Port Coquitlam councillor had been dumped from her Metro post, acting mayor’s position and other committees for a breach of confidence.
In a written statement released Thursday, May 28, the city said Coun. Dupont had been under investigation by an independent investigator and is said to have breached the Community Charter by disclosing materials from an in-camera meeting. Neither the city or the mayor would elaborate on what was leaked.
Council unanimously agreed that Dupont’s breach was unbecoming and that her actions merit her censure and removal as the city’s representative on all external boards and committees.
In an interview with The Tri-City News, Dupont apologized for what she called a “mistake.” However, she could not elaborate on what occurred in a closed meeting.
She told The Tri-City News the censure is a way of silencing her outspoken efforts on environmental protection and climate change. She confirmed she was no longer a member of Metro Vancouver’s Climate Change Action Committee, she has been removed from the acting-mayor rotation and her appointment to the Tri-Cities Healthy Community Partnership has been revoked.
The climate action committee has representatives from most areas of the region, but with Dupont gone there is no-one representing the Tri-Cities.
Among the topics at the most recent climate action committee was air quality, and a request that the Metro Vancouver Regional District Board send letters to the the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change for economic stimulus funding to be directed to low carbon initiatives.
Gower was the NDP candidate for Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam in the 2019 federal election.
According to her petition, “Port Coquitlam City Councillor, Laura Dupont, is exactly who we want on our Environmental Action Committee. Our governments need to be exceptionally transparent on the work they are doing to resolve climate crisis issues and there is no one more dedicated and less self serving than Councillor Laura Dupont.”
As of Friday morning, it was approaching 200 signatures.
