A federal public servant has had to abandon her dream of running for mayor of Dieppe, N.B., after her employer told her she would have to quit her job if she were to be elected.
Corinne Godbout says the decision took her off guard because she’s been serving as city councillor for years now without issue.
Godbout, who works as a senior counsel for the Department of Justice Canada, has been part of Dieppe’s city council since 2021. She was hoping to become the city’s first female mayor in the upcoming municipal elections until she received a letter from her employer in late March.
As a federal public servant, she was required to ask the Public Service Commission (PSC) for permission to run in municipal politics.
“I applied both to (run) as mayor and also to run again as city council at large in case (the) conditions were too severe. But I didn’t expect there to be conditions that would go as far as being required to leave the public service,” she said.
Global News obtained a copy of the letter, which states Godbout would cease to be a public servant if she won her bid to become mayor.
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If she were to run for re-election as a councillor instead, the employer laid out stricter conditions than the ones imposed in 2021.
In 2021, she was advised to recuse herself from discussions, proceedings or votes related to her federal organization.
Conditions imposed this time around included that she be put on leave without pay beginning on the day she started her campaign. That leave without pay would last until one year following the end of her term (if she were elected), one year following the election (if she were not elected), or one year following her withdrawal as a candidate.
Godbout said she chose not to file the paperwork to run for either mayor or councillor as a result.
“I’m disappointed. I certainly had planned on recreating myself. At this stage of my career, it was a wonderful opportunity,” she said.
“I spent five years as a city councillor serving the community and I’m certainly going to miss it.”
Federal public servants are required to obtain permission from the PSC before seeking nomination as a candidate in federal, provincial, territorial or municipal elections.
In an email, a PSC spokesperson said the requirement “aims to protect the impartiality of the federal public service and maintain public confidence to prevent conflicts of interest.”
As for why the conditions imposed this year are so much stricter than the ones imposed in 2021, the PSC said each request is assessed on a case-by-case basis.
Factors that weigh in the decision include “the nature of the public servant’s duties, the level, influence in decision-making and visibility of their position within the public service, and the nature of the election and the position of elected office sought.”
“The conditions vary depending on the position sought, in order to reflect the distinct nature of each role and the risks associated with impartiality in the responsibilities of the federal public servant,” the PSC added in its email.
But Godbout says she wonders if decisions like this will dissuade other public servants from running for municipal politics at a time when leadership is needed.
“I think it’s not really a great precedent. Today we have a lot of demands on the municipalities,” she said.
“We need strong leadership, we need people with a lot of skills and we certainly want to be able to make that as many candidates available as possible.”
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