The mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, wants a significant “culture change” in Montreal’s boroughs to speed up the issuance of building permits, for which delays have increased throughout the metropolis.
While the housing crisis hits everywhere in Quebec, Mme Plante recognizes that the municipal apparatus must absolutely improve its efficiency in order to allow residential projects to come to fruition more quickly.
“It’s disturbing to see that it’s taking longer to obtain permits,” said the mayor, Thursday at an editorial meeting at The Pressreacting to the report published the same day on our platforms.
“What we want is to return to the pre-pandemic level. There are very specific things that we can do. I want us to straighten out the borough processes to be more efficient. There are certainly processes that can be more standardized. »
According to data obtained by The Pressthe delays in issuing construction permits in Montreal have increased on average by 34% compared to 2018. They have increased even more in certain boroughs, such as Ville-Marie and Lachine, even if the number of permits requested is decreasing, due to the economic slowdown.
Clearly, builders and citizens have the right to expect that we will be more efficient in the issuance of permits and in the processes. The conversations have already started, but they must go further.
Valérie Plante, mayor of Montreal
Although some boroughs have to deal with employee absences and a labor shortage, “this is no reason not to be more efficient when it comes to issuing permits,” observes M.me Plant.
According to the mayor, the implementation in 2021 of a “facilitator cell”, aimed at finding solutions to reduce delays, is appreciated by entrepreneurs who can benefit from support.
“So far, we see an improvement with the facilitating cell, but clearly, it is not enough. We will have to push further, that’s for sure,” she admits.
“We are a big machine”
The reduction in bureaucratic burden desired by Valérie Plante does not necessarily mean a reduction in the number of employees.
The mayor also defended the significant growth in the number of municipal employees since her accession to town hall, while the City of Montreal has added more than 2,000 employees to its workforce.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Mayor Valérie Plante in interview with journalists and the chief editorialist of The PressStéphanie Grammond
“When you look at the full figure, it’s big, but at the same time, Montreal is big too,” she said. We are a big machine. »
For the moment, the municipal administration announced in mid-October that it was adopting a slimming treatment until the end of 2023 in order to be able to complete its financial year: new hires are limited and budget reserves partially recovered.
These measures will not be renewed for the whole of 2024 in the budget presented on November 15, but could be extended piecemeal, one quarter at a time, revealed Mme Plant.
“We are still under review,” explained the mayor. There are no hires for the next few weeks, and after that, we’ll see. »
Limited hiring, “it’s certain that it has an impact on certain projects, it may go more slowly, but whatever happens, we won’t touch services to citizens.”