The Ville-Marie district will not have a mayor elected directly by its population, despite the fact that the majority of citizens consulted voted in favor of this option last year.
Downtown residents will therefore always have the chief magistrate of the City of Montreal as district mayor, as is currently the case. On the other hand, Ville-Marie is in discussions with the Quebec government to review the “designated councilors” model in order to improve local representativeness, explains municipal councilor Robert Beaudry, responsible for democracy on the executive committee.
“We are seeking to improve the governance of the district while maintaining proximity to the population,” he said. But for the district town hall, as it is the heart of the metropolis, it is preferable for it to be headed by the mayor of the city, who has more weight when the time comes, for example, to negotiate with the government of Quebec, believes Mr. Beaudry.
Currently, two of the five councilors in the Ville-Marie borough are not elected by the population. These are municipal councilors from other boroughs who are designated by Mayor Valérie Plante to sit in Ville-Marie. During the consultation conducted in 2023 by the Institut du Nouveau Monde, 93% of respondents were of the opinion that the majority of votes on the district council should be held by people directly elected by the voters of Ville-Marie.