Julie Dufour | |
---|---|
Mayor of Saguenay | |
Assumed office November 15, 2021 | |
Preceded by | Josée Néron |
Saguenay City Councillor | |
In office November 2013 –November 2021 | |
Preceded by | Fabien Hovington |
Succeeded by | Claude Bouchard |
Constituency | District 2 (2017–2021) District 8 (2013–2017) |
Jonquière Borough President | |
In office December 2017 –November 2021 | |
Preceded by | Carl Dufour |
Succeeded by | Carl Dufour |
Personal details | |
Political party | Independent |
Occupation | Educator |
Julie Dufour (born c. 1980) [1] is a Canadian politician. She has served as the mayor of Saguenay,Quebec since 2021.
Dufour holds college diplomas in human sciences from the Cégep de Chicoutimi and in special education technology the Cégep de Jonquière. She has also received university credits from the Universitédu Québec àChicoutimi in administration,secondary education and psychology. [2]
Prior to being elected,Dufour worked at a youth shelter from 2001 to 2008 and as a specialized educator at the Commission scolaire de la Jonquière from 2008 to 2013. [3] While working for the school board,she also worked for the Cégep de Jonquière. [2]
Dufour was first elected to Saguenay City Council in the 2013 municipal elections representing District 8,which covered the former municipality of Shipshaw. [2] She defeated incumbent councillor Fabien Hovington by about 100 votes. During her first term of office,she was well known for her opposition to mayor Jean Tremblay. In 2016,she filed a lawsuit against the city for not respecting the law in regards to the extension of the term of the auditor general. [1]
Following redistricting,she was easily re-elected in the 2017 municipal elections in District 2,winning 64% of the vote,defeating candidates from the Équipe du renouveau démocratique and Parti des citoyens de Saguenay municipal parties. [1] Dufour served as president of the borough of Jonquière from 2017 to 2021. [3] She was elected to the position by Jonquière's city councillors following the 2017 elections,succeeding Carl Dufour. [4]
Dufour entered the race for mayor of Sagenuay in February 2021, [1] and was elected as mayor of Saguenay in the 2021 municipal elections,defeating the incumbent mayor Josée Néron and former Liberal provincial cabinet minister Serge Simard. She won over 25,000 votes,worth 48% of the electorate. Néron credited Dufour's victory to the promise of a tax freeze,while Dufour credited her victory due to her closeness to the voters during the campaign. [5] Dufour also hailed her victory as unifying the amalgamated city,but Simard had the opposite view,claiming her win set the city back 20 years,pitting the city's two main boroughs of Jonquière and Chicoutimi against each other. [6]
Dufour's first year in office was marked by a landslide in the La Baie borough of the city,as well as inflation and the lowest growth rate among the province's 10 largest cities. [7]
In 2023,Dufour came under scrutiny for a number of different controversies. She refused to comment on why the city's director of legal affairs was suspended without pay before the 2022 Christmas holidays; [8] She was criticized for outing the sexuality of the director of the Fire Safety Service; [9] The Commission municipale du Québec received complaints against her improperly dismissing Jean-Luc Roberge as director general of the Sociétéde transport du Saguenay; [10] She claimed that she paid for her legal battles during the lawsuit against the city from her time as a councillor,but it was discovered that the city had to pay her legal fees of nearly $25,000; [11] And,former mayor Néron filed a complaint to the Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec stating that Dufour offered Jean-Marc Crevier a labour relations consultant job if he agreed to not run for mayor in 2021. [12]
Chicoutimi is the most populous borough (arrondissement) of the city of Saguenay in Quebec,Canada.
The Saguenay River is a major river of Quebec,Canada. It drains Lac Saint-Jean in the Laurentian Highlands,leaving at Alma and running east;the city of Saguenay is located on the river. It drains into the Saint Lawrence River. Tadoussac,founded as a French colonial trading post in 1600,is located on the northeast bank at this site.
Saguenay is a city in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec,Canada,on the Saguenay River,about 200 kilometres (120 mi) north of Quebec City by overland route. It is about 126 kilometres (78 mi) upriver and northwest of Tadoussac,located at the confluence with the St. Lawrence River. It was formed in 2002 by merging the cities of Chicoutimi and Jonquière and the town of La Baie. Chicoutimi was founded by French colonists in 1676. As of July 2021,the city had a population of 145,000 and the metropolitan area had a population of 165,000.
Jonquière is a borough (arrondissement) of the city of Saguenay in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec,Canada. It is located on the Saguenay River,near the borough of Chicoutimi.
La Baie is one of three boroughs in the city of Saguenay,Quebec,Canada. It was created during Quebec's municipal reorganization in 2002. From 1976 to 2001,it was known as the Town of La Baie,a municipality composed of the Grande-Baie,Bagotville and Port-Alfred sectors.
Chicoutimi—Le Fjord is a federal electoral district in Quebec,Canada,that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1925. The riding consists of the northern part of the Chicoutimi borough of Saguenay,as well as the La Baie borough and the municipalities of Ferland-et-Boilleau,L'Anse-Saint-Jean,Petit-Saguenay,Rivière-Éternitéand Saint-Félix-d'Otis and the unorganized territory of Lalemant.
The Saguenay City Council is the governing body for the mayor–council government in the city of Saguenay,in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec.
The Centre Georges-Vézina,formerly the Colisée de Chicoutimi,is a 4,724 capacity multi-purpose arena in Saguenay,Quebec,Canada. The arena was built in 1949 and features an Olympic-sized ice pad of 200' X 100'.
Arvida is a settlement of 12,000 people (2010) in Quebec,Canada,that is part of the City of Saguenay. Its name is derived from the name of its founder,Arthur Vining Davis,president of the Alcoa aluminum company.
Route 170 is a major east/west highway on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec,Canada,and it parallels the Saguenay River on the south side of it. The western terminus of Route 170 is in Métabetchouan–Lac-à-la-Croix at the junction of Route 169,at Lac Saint-Jean,and the eastern terminus is in Saint-Siméon,at the junction of Route 138,close to the Saint Lawrence River.
Jean Tremblay is a Canadian businessman and politician who was mayor of Saguenay,Quebec,Canada,from 2002 to 2017. Before that he was mayor of Chicoutimi since 1996.
Sylvain Gaudreault is a Canadian politician and teacher. He was the Member of National Assembly of Quebec for the riding of Jonquière in the city of Saguenay from 2007 to 2022. He represents the Parti Québécois. On May 6,2016,the party caucus chose him as interim leader following the resignation of PQ leader Pierre Karl Péladeau.
Sociétéde transport du Saguenay (STS) is the public transport company in Saguenay,Quebec,Canada,formerly the Corporation intermunicipale de transport du Saguenay (CITS). They operate from three main terminals located in the boroughs of Chicoutimi,Jonquière and La Baie. The network covers a large part of the city including industrial,commercial and residential areas,with interurban links between the former municipalities and to the townships of Laterrière in the south and Shipshaw and Tremblay in the north.
The Cégep de Chicoutimi is a post-secondary institution in the province of Quebec,Canada. It is located in the Chicoutimi borough of the City of Saguenay. It is one of four CEGEPs in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region.
Chicoutimi station is a former Canadian National Railway Company railway station in the Chicoutimi borough of the city of Saguenay in Quebec's Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region.
Regard –Saguenay International Short Film Festival,also known as the Saguenay International Short Film Festival,or simply Regard,is a short film festival taking place annually in the city of Saguenay,Quebec,Canada. Founded in 1996,it is one of the main film festivals dedicated to shorts in North America.
Bruno Marchand is a Canadian politician who currently serves as mayor of Quebec City,Quebec,succeeding Régis Labeaume in the 2021 Quebec City municipal election.
Jeanick Fournier is a Canadian singer from Saguenay,Quebec,most noted as the winner of the second season of Canada's Got Talent.