Montreal is reshuffling its senior management to give more importance to public security, which will now be managed by a separate body. The City also says it is reviewing a series of municipal services by 2050, to meet the “future needs of its population”.
Posted at 10:39
“Urban security is a priority at all times, especially in the face of the recent violent events with which we have been confronted,” said Mayor Valérie Plante at the start of the day.
The year 2021 has indeed been marked by an outbreak of gun violence and major drug seizures. At the end of the year, 187 shooting events had occurred in Montreal since the start of 2021, or 44 more than the 143 episodes of 2020, an increase of 30%. Several other events involving firearms have also taken place in 2022 since that date.
For the time being, Valérie Plante says that the creation of the Deputy Directorate General (DGA) “Urban Security and Compliance” will be an “additional lever to ensure that Montreal remains a safe city and that the population feels safe”.
I have said it and I will say it again, we must combine our efforts so that Montreal remains a city where everyone feels safe. This new DGA is a further step in this direction.
Valérie Plante, Mayor of Montreal
The new unit will notably supervise the Fire Safety Service (SIM), the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), the City Clerk and its Legal Affairs Department. Its creation will also make it possible “to appoint a person whose only priority will be to intervene on security, which is of great importance, with a transversal vision and with a view to prevention”, indicated the director general of the City, Serge Lamontagne.
Another Deputy General Manager will also change vocation and name, to become the “Economy and influence of the metropolis” department. It will thus encompass economic development, procurement, property assessment, the International Relations Office and a “new team dedicated to real estate strategy”, indicated the municipal authorities. Its goal will be to ensure economic recovery, “including the strategy for a strong and resilient downtown, as well as the development of eastern Montreal”.
The DGA “Urban planning, mobility and infrastructure” will also be set up in the wake of the City’s 2050 Urban Planning and Mobility Plan, in order to “explore the different ways” in which Montreal “could be developed” in the coming decades. . The other two DGAs concern “quality of life” and “services to citizens”.