Jocelyne Houle
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Jocelyne Houle (born January 9, 1954) [1] is a Quebec politician and businesswomen. She is the current councillor for the Buckingham ward in the amalgamated city of Gatineau, Quebec.
Houle was mayor of the former city of Buckingham from 1999 to 2001 after being councillor for the city between 1995 and 1999.
When the former city of Buckingham merged with Hull, Gatineau, Masson-Angers and Aylmer, she announced her candidacy for councillor in the newly created Buckingham ward and was elected without opposition in 2001. During her first term in the new city's administration, she was named assistant mayor to then-mayor Yves Ducharme and was also named a member of the city's executive committee. She was also named to that committee when former councillor Marc Bureau won the 2005 city elections.
During her first term, she was credited for several projects, including the revitalization of Buckingham's main street, Avenue de Buckingham as well as improvement's to the city's only bridge, improved public transit service from the STO as well as the addition of a municipal pool at École secondaire Hormidas-Gamelin. Significant residential developments have also occurred between 2002 and 2006.
She was responsible for the collective agreements of city employees including police officers, firefighters, blue collars and white collars. The first collective agreements were marked by tensions from the city's police force which conducted several protest moves including wearing jeans at work instead of their traditional uniforms. Firefighters organized a loud protest in front of former mayor Yves Ducharme's home during a night. The city's blue collars also painted the city's vehicles with graffiti. The issues were later resolved a few years after the amalgamation with the city's white collars being the last group of workers having an official deal.
In addition of her councillor duties, she is also very active in the community in Buckingham being involved in the area's major festival Buckingham en Fete which is held every July in the community's largest park, MacLaren Park in the downtown area. Recent financial troubles is however casted a doubt about the future of the festival, but the 2007 is till planned to go on as planned. She is a member of an association of businesswomen in the Outaouais region.
In late-2007, Houle was approached by the Conservative Party of Canada as a potential candidate in a future federal election in the Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel riding, currently occupied by the Bloc Quebecois Mario Laframboise, although the Conservatives had previously named Suzanne Courville as the candidate in that riding in March 2007. [2]
She also runs a local jewellery store in Buckingham since 1981.
