Charbonneau was a communications advisor for Hôpital Notre-Dame in private life, a position that he retained after his election to city council.
[4] The following year, he joined with other MCM dissidents in protesting the mayor's decision for Montreal to lease space in the World Trade Center.
[10] Charbonneau criticized Bourque's administration in June 1997, saying that it had neglected its promise to protect a group of houses that were sinking into the ground in the city's east end.
[11] He later resigned from VM to sit as an independent on July 18, 1997, in protest against Bourque's decision to sell the Hippodrome de Montréal to the provincial government.
Helen Fotopulos, an opposition councillor, remarked that the move had been "in the works" for some time, as evidenced by Charbonneau's record of voting with the mayor.