Jacques Finet

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Jacques Finet is a former politician from Quebec. He was the mayor of Longueuil from 1982 to 1987, leading the Parti municipal de Longueuil. He first served on Longueuil’s City Council as a councillor for the tenth ward after being elected in 1978.

In 1981, after party leader Paul Viau resigned, Finet became the party leader without opposition. He narrowly defeated Marcel Robidas in the 1982 municipal election to become mayor, and his party won a strong majority on council. As mayor, Finet pushed a plan to clean up the Saint Lawrence River and beautify Longueuil’s waterfront. The initial proposal included a three-kilometer sewage interceptor pipe in the river bed, which faced opposition from environmental groups. Quebec’s government rejected that plan in 1985, and Finet agreed to a compromise that placed most of the pipe under Quebec Route 132. The waterfront project began in September 1986. In March 1985, Finet also arranged a land swap with Pratt & Whitney Canada to free land for housing development. That year he ordered ten emergency dispatchers to learn English so emergency services could be provided in both languages at all times. He became chair of the Montreal South Shore Transit Corp in December 1985, aiming to improve access to the Longueuil Metro Station and to introduce a commuter shuttle to Montreal via the Champlain Bridge. He helped end a 35-day drivers’ strike in 1986.

Finet led a cleanup program for Chambly Road in 1986 and announced a five-million-dollar refurbishment that July. He was easily re-elected in the 1986 election, and the Parti municipal won all 19 council seats. He continued as chair of the transit corporation, but in April 1987 he unexpectedly resigned as mayor to take a job with Hydro-Québec as executive vice-president for Quebec sales, saying it was a unique opportunity and that he planned to return to the company someday.

At Hydro-Québec, Finet launched an energy-reduction campaign in 1991. In August 1991 he became Hydro-Québec’s first vice-president for Europe, based in Brussels, with a focus on maintaining a strong public image amid criticism of the Great Whale River project. He defended Hydro-Québec’s dealings with Cree and Inuit communities and argued that compensation had been paid and conditions were improving. He faced opposition from critics who argued the projects created health risks and social problems. The International Water Tribunal eventually called for the project to be halted pending an environmental review.

In June 1992 Finet was elected leader of the International Union for Electroheat (UIE), becoming the first North American to lead the organization. Hydro-Québec trimmed its European public-relations activities in 1993, and Finet announced his retirement from the company. He later sought to return to Longueuil politics in 1994 with the Alliance de Longueuil, a merger of two local parties. He won the party leadership on May 1, 1994, promising a tax freeze, an economic-development office, an arts and culture center for the South Shore, and neighborhood quality-of-life committees, along with a plan to merge transit systems with a distance-based fare. Finet finished third in the 1994 mayoral race, behind Claude Gladu, and he stepped down as Alliance leader in November 1995. He has not returned to political life since.