Jacques Finet

Jacques Finet is a former politician in the Canadian province of Quebec. He served as mayor of Longueuil from 1982 to 1987 as leader of the Parti municipal de Longueuil.

Jacques Finet worked for Hydro-Québec prior to his election as Longueuil's mayor. He was first elected to the Longueuil City Council as a city councillor in the 1978 municipal election, representing the city's tenth ward. The overall result of this election was inconclusive: Marcel Robidas of the rival Parti civique de Longueuil was re-elected as mayor, but the Parti municipal won nine of seventeen seats and held a functioning majority until one of its representatives was expelled from the party. Parti municipal leader Paul Viau resigned in 1981, and Jacques Finet was chosen without opposition to become his successor.

Finet defeated Robidas by the narrow margin of eighty-two votes in the 1982 municipal election to become mayor of Longueuil, and the Parti municipal won a convincing majority on council.

As mayor, Finet promoted a cleanup plan for the Saint Lawrence River and a related beautification project for Longueuil's waterfront. The original project proposal would have involved constructing a sewage interceptor pipe on the river's bed for three kilometers, and for this reason the plan was opposed by local environmental groups. The plan was rejected by the government of Quebec in late 1985, and Finet instead accepted a compromise to construct most of the pipe under Quebec Route 132. The waterfront beautification project began in September 1986.

In March 1985, Finet signed a land-swap agreement with Pratt & Whitney Canada, a major employer in the region with which the city had previously had difficult relations. The new municipal lands were intended for housing development. Later in the same year, Finet ordered ten emergency dispatchers in Longueuil to take lessons in English, to ensure that the city would be able to provide emergency services in French and English at all hours.

...
Wikipedia