(Quebec) A few months after having made severe criticisms of the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority (ARTM), the Legault government is appointing a new president to head its board of directors. The former director general of the City of Longueuil, Patrick Savard, replaces Pierre Shedleur.
Posted at 7:28 p.m.
The Council of Ministers made this appointment on Wednesday, during its weekly meeting.
Patrick Savard had been DG of Ville de Longueuil since 2014. Mayor Catherine Fournier replaced him two months after his election. Mr. Savard will take up his duties at the ARTM on May 31.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, ARCHIVES LA PRESSE
Patrick Savard
Former president of the Société Générale de Financement (an organization merged with Investissement Québec in 2010), Pierre Shedleur, 74, has chaired the ARTM’s board of directors since the organization’s inception in 2017. His five-year term was coming up. due. The Authority has the mandate to plan public transit in the greater Montreal area.
Last year, the Legault government refused the strategic plan submitted by the ARTM, criticizing it in particular for the lack of “prioritization” in a long and costly list of public transit projects.
“We have the ARTM which accepts all proposals from all the municipalities of Greater Montreal and that totals, just for Greater Montreal, 57 billion. It’s not serious, ”lamented Prime Minister François Legault in November. “The work of prioritization has not been done. [L’ARTM], in good French, it’s not a trunk box. She must be responsible for prioritizing. »
The transport companies in the region (STM, STL, RTL and exo) also denounced several “duplication” between their work and that of the ARTM, heavy “bureaucracy” and a lack of transparency.