Dismissal questioned
Municipality wants Whalley suit dismissed
In its statement of defence, the Cape Breton Regional Municipality claims to have never terminated or constructively dismissed its former regional economic development officer, John Whalley.
The municipality claims it was Whalley who resigned his position on May 28, 2015 in an email to Michael Merritt, the municipality’s CAO.
The municipality’s response comes after Whalley filed a civil suit against the province’s second largest municipality claiming constructive dismissal without notice and without pay in lieu of notice.
The allegation from both sides has not been proven in court.
Whalley’s resignation was announced May 30, 2015, and at the time was described by Mayor Cecil Clarke as a personnel matter.
In a notice of action filed May 20 with the Supreme Court in Sydney, Whalley’s lawyer, Blair Mitchell, of Halifax, outlined some of the events leading to his client‘s departure.
Whalley began his career with the municipality in March 1997 and a year later, was involved nearly exclusively with the development of the port of Sydney.
By 2013, according to the notice, Whalley was considered the municipality’s leading authority on port development.
On May 25, 2015, Whalley and other individuals, not identified in the notice, are alleged to have expressed concern regarding advice being received from the provincial Department of Municipal Affairs.
The department’s comments were in relation to the municipality acquiring certain additional lands for the port.
Whalley is also to have expressed concern that an individual, not identified in the notice but who was also working on the land acquisition, may have been in a conflict of interest.
Days later, Whalley claims he was called to Merritt’s office and told he was being reassigned from the port file. He was told he was being moved to a project that had no council approval and no budget.
The suit claims Whalley was never given an opportunity to respond to the decision to move him and that such action was a breach of his employment contract .
In defence of the municipality, Sydney-based lawyer Tony Mozvik asks that the suit be dismissed suggesting that if Whalley suffered any loss, he did not act reasonably nor did he mitigate his losses.
No court date has been to assigned to the suit.