The mayor of Westmount is repeating his calls for Gilles Vaillancourt to resign from the board of the Quebec union of municipalities (UMQ).

Mayor Peter Trent says the fact that he's still among those running a major association for Quebec's cities hurts the UMQ's reputation and the public trust.

"Once police have raided someone's house, I things have got to a pretty serious point," Trent says.

Trent resigned himself from the UMQ in protest two years ago, because its then-president, the mayor of St-Jerome, was besieged with conflict of interest allegations.

But, Trent says he still will not return because of Vaillencourt's presence on the board. "You can't have somebody with this cloud over their head still remaining as the director of the Quebec municipalities union."

Trent will not say whether Vaillancourt, or any other mayor, should resign from public office.
But, he does say the allegations, investigations, and criminal charges, are immensely worrying.

"It's going to take many many years for the local elected officials to regain the confidence of the public," he says.