Montreal wants to hear from the population about the governance of the Ville-Marie borough by the end of March. One of the scenarios that will be submitted for consultation proposes the election by universal suffrage of the mayor of the borough, in addition to the abolition of the positions of designated councilors in favor of councilors elected by the citizens of the city centre.
Since 2009, the position of mayor of the borough of Ville-Marie has been de facto occupied by the person elected as mayor of Montreal, who also appoints two councilors to sit on the borough council. This formula has been denounced many times over the years by citizens of the borough who considered the democratic deficit of which they were victims unacceptable.
This model was adopted in 2007, after former mayor Gérald Tremblay asked Quebec City for legislative changes to give the mayor of Montreal control over this strategic borough. Then mayor of Ville-Marie, Benoit Labonté had just walked out of Union Montréal, as had Councilor Karim Boulos, thus causing Mayor Tremblay to lose his majority in Ville-Marie. Quebec had granted the mayor’s wish. As of 2009, following his re-election as mayor of Montreal, Gérald Tremblay now ran the town hall of Ville-Marie, as did Denis Coderre and Valérie Plante.
As early as 2017, Projet Montréal promised in its electoral program to demand that the Government of Quebec correct “the inequity suffered by the citizens of the borough of Ville-Marie”. In November 2021, the Plante administration therefore entrusted a committee of experts, including former PQ minister Louise Harel, University of Montreal professor Laurence Bherer, and the director general of the Société de développement du downtown, Glenn Castanheira, the mission to look into the file and to propose solutions.
Scenarios
The committee of experts has developed three scenarios that have in common to replace the two positions of city councilors appointed by the mayor of Montreal by three positions of elected borough councilors who would not sit on the city council of Montreal. Thus, each district of the borough would have two locally elected councilors instead of one.
– Scenario 1 : The double function of mayor of Montreal and mayor of Ville-Marie would be retained. This formula would make it possible to maintain “administrative efficiency” and “harmony” between the City and this strategic borough. This proposal, however, would not increase the legitimacy of the position of borough mayor and would not satisfy the many critics, specify the documents of the City.
– Scenario 2 : The dual role of mayor of Montreal and mayor of Ville-Marie would be maintained, but a borough mayor would be appointed from among the elected councilors to take care of the day-to-day management of the borough. This formula would have the advantage of maintaining “relative harmony” between the City and the borough, but would risk weighing down the administrative structure and decision-making, it is pointed out.
– Scenario 3 : The borough mayor would be elected by universal suffrage by the voters of Ville-Marie, which would respond to the desire for greater legitimacy of this position and would ensure better access to the borough mayor requested by the citizens. This scenario, however, would risk reviving the acrimonious situation of before 2009, harming the development of the city center and undermining the current effectiveness of governance, it is argued.
Consultation
The three scenarios will be submitted for consultation by the Institut du Nouveau Monde (INM) during the month of March with discussion workshops, one with citizens on March 18 and the other with socio-economic groups and associations on March 23. Citizens will also be able to express their views by answering an online questionnaire on the Réalisons Montréal platform.
“We want to hear from the people. The objective is to go there in the opposite direction to what was done at a certain time, ”explained to the Duty the councilor for the district of Saint-Jacques and responsible for the democracy file on the executive committee, Robert Beaudry. “We want it to be an independent, non-partisan approach that brings the three scenarios into play. »
The consultation will not be limited solely to the three scenarios, since citizens will be invited to submit their own proposals and these will be taken into consideration, assures Mr. Beaudry.
The INM will submit a report following the consultations. The Plante administration will retain a scenario that will be submitted to the Government of Quebec, since a change in the governance of Ville-Marie will require an amendment to the Charter of the City of Montreal. Robert Beaudry points out that if the government agrees to the City’s request, the changes could come into effect during the 2025 municipal elections. The elected official, however, refrained from favoring one option among those proposed.
Further details will follow.