After more than 35 years in the municipal public service, the Director General of the City of Montreal, Serge Lamontagne, will leave his position in the coming months to retire, Valérie Plante announced Wednesday.
The mayor paid tribute to Montreal’s highest civil servant during the weekly meeting of the executive committee by praising the feats of arms of Serge Lamontagne, in office since 2018.
She recalled having a “crush” on the senior civil servant who already had a long track record when she chose him to occupy the position of director general almost six years ago, when she was coming to access Montreal town hall.
“We had to have a person who was capable of motivating the troops. […] If there is one thing that Serge and I have always agreed extremely well on, it was on the question of ensuring that everyone has their place in Montreal, that we take care of the most vulnerable, that we have the question of territorial equity in mind and that we bring this kindness to the City of Montreal,” she said moved.
She pointed out that Serge Lamontagne had to manage the City during the pandemic when Montreal was the epicenter of COVID-19 in Canada. “We came out with the best economic recovery in the country and the second best economic recovery in North America. It doesn’t happen by snapping your fingers,” she said.
During his career, Serge Lamontagne worked in the borough of Saint-Laurent and in Pointe-Claire. He became interim director general of the City of Montreal in 2013 before being recruited by the new mayor of Laval, Marc Demers, who appointed him director general after years of corruption under the reign of Gilles Vaillancourt.
Serge Lamontagne finally returned to Montreal city hall in June 2018 to support the administration of Valérie Plante and take over from Alain Marcoux.
“We would not have been able to bring the vision that our administration has this far if you had not been there,” Mayor Plante told Mr. Lamontagne.