“We had a date with history. Barely elected, the future president of the Montreal executive committee Dominique Ollivier, who will be part of the first administration headed by two women in the metropolis, already promises to tackle several projects, including civic engagement.
“We have been saying for years that having women in business and in politics makes a difference. There, I think it will be our chance to prove it ”, explains to Press the new councilor of the district of Vieux-Rosemont, who will be the number 2 of the mayor Valérie Plante.
Dominique Ollivier: The commitment of a lifetime
A native of Haiti, she will be the fourth woman to hold this position, and the first black woman. It will also be the first all-female duo. “To have two women at the head of the City, I think that it can not help but support this momentum of a human, inclusive and green city”, maintains the main interested party.
Everywhere in Quebec, we have a new political generation that is even more concerned with the future, the environment, and inclusive societies. In my opinion, it will change the paradigm.
Dominique Ollivier
Former president of the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM), Dominique Ollivier campaigned throughout the campaign for greater representation of diversity. And she feels “more than ever” in the results of the vote, according to her. “We elected a counselor with disabilities, which had not yet been seen in Montreal. There are some very interesting things happening, ”she says, referring to the elected councilor of the De Lorimier district, Laurence Parent.
Priorities in sight
The new president of the executive committee will quickly have her work cut out for her, as the adoption of a city budget is imminent. “We will keep our promise not to increase taxes to more than 2% in the first year,” assures Mr.me Ollivier, whose party then undertakes to limit increases to the level of inflation.
“What I want to take, more generally, is a vast project to rethink municipal taxation, which is currently based on property tax. We have to find models of income diversification, ”she says.
Mme Ollivier also intends to tackle as a priority the achievement of 60,000 affordable housing units by 2031, which Valérie Plante promised in the campaign. “We see different models emerging, but we will have to use the right of pre-emption, the possibilities of renovation, the register of leases, et cetera, to support a truly affordable metropolis,” she insists.
In housing, all municipalities have issues. There is this idea of re-meshing Quebec, in short this reflection to be done around the issues of housing and the housing crisis which must go beyond the borders of the metropolis, in a perspective of a pan-Quebec alliance.
Dominique Ollivier
For the 57-year-old woman, who wants to “bring Montreal closer to the regions”, everything will also go through the engagement of citizens in municipal politics. A task that promises to be complex in the metropolis, where barely 34.84% of citizens went to the polls after the poll on Sunday.
Beyond “electoral fatigue” and the pandemic, Mr.me Ollivier still sees the positive. “If people didn’t go out to vote, it’s probably also because they didn’t want a change. Even this abstention, in some way, can be considered as support. That said, it is clear that we must have better citizen participation, ”says the advisor.
It intends to develop several mechanisms for citizen participation, including a participatory budget – which would be 60 million by 2025. “Taking back part of the control and citizen power, especially in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods, is the key” , she said, adding that the interest of the electorate will be developed “if it can give its opinion more often than four years”.
At the end of the interview, the new number 2 of the City did not fail to flay the defeated candidate, Denis Coderre, who on Sunday lamented having lived “the dirtiest electoral campaign” of his career. “He tries to blame us for the problems he has experienced, instead of taking responsibility. If he hadn’t wasted so much time trying to hide trifles, defending indefensible people, we wouldn’t be in this situation. Mr. Coderre is the architect of his own misfortune somewhere, ”she said, judging instead to have led a“ campaign of ideas and positive ”.