Cape Breton council votes for police investigation on former mayor’s credit card expenses

The Cape Breton council has voted for a police investigation into the former mayor’s credit card use.

Cape Breton Regional council voted unanimously on Tuesday to have a policing agency look further into former Mayor Amanda McDougall-Merrill’s use of a municipal credit card.

“I feel, on a personal level, that I have personally lost public confidence because of the actions of one individual,” said District 1 Coun. Gordon MacDonald shortly before the vote was taken.

“If it’s not put forward for further investigation, I believe it looks as if we condone this behaviour and I know myself I do not,” said District 12 Coun. Kim Sheppard.

An internal audit completed in January revealed McDougall-Merrill had charged nearly $17,000 in personal expenses to a Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) credit card.

The money has since been paid back.

Some councillors noted many of their constituents have unanswered questions following the initial probe.

“To make sure that it’s fair to everyone,” said District 9 Coun. Dave MacKeigan. “Fair to the former mayor and to council and the residents of CBRM.”

Mayor Cecil Clarke said it’s not clear how long a police investigation might take or if the RCMP will look into the matter.

“Our agency of jurisdiction is the Cape Breton Regional Police Service”, Clarke said. “(Police) Chief (Robert) Walsh, in receiving the report, can then determine if there’s a necessity for an outside agency to be involved and he’s previously suggested that that may be the best,” Clarke said.

“She (McDougall-Merrill) was fully cooperative, as we had previously indicated,” said Robert Sampson, the lawyer brought in by the municipality to lead the initial probe.

Sampson said he wasn’t asked to check for irregularities from a criminal point of view, adding that for most of McDougall-Merrill’s time in office, the city’s then-chief administrative officer would have been responsible to check her expenses.

“And did in fact check the mayor’s expenses up to the point in time that was around April 2023 , when there were no reports filed after that date,” Sampson said.

In a statement to CTV Atlantic last week, McDougall-Merrill said errors were made when she was without a key member of her administrative staff during her final 14 months as mayor.

Before voting on Tuesday, council discussed the matter behind closed doors in an in-camera meeting that lasted more than three hours.

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