Montreal Audit Committee | “No lesson to be learned in terms of transparency”

The Plante administration on Monday formalized the exclusion of elected opposition officials from the City of Montreal’s audit committee, pleading that they had “no lessons to be learned” in terms of transparency.

Philippe Teisceira-Lessard
Press

For the first time since the Tremblay era, municipal finances will not be able to be scrutinized by the opposition within the framework of these technical sessions, which bring together elected officials, mayors of demerged towns and experts.

Despite criticism from elected members of Ensemble Montreal (the ex-party of Denis Coderre), the troops of Valérie Plante approved Monday afternoon the appointment of three of theirs to sit on the committee.

Project Montreal and the administration “we have no lesson to learn in terms of transparency”, argued Benoit Dorais, vice-president of the executive committee of the City of Montreal. The elected representative then took stock of the various transparency measures decided by his team since 2017. “Our service records are quite convincing. ”

“What is important for us is to have appointments that will ensure that this body, this independent body, can do its control work,” he said. To justify his position, Mr. Dorais mentioned in particular the “extremely confidential” nature of the work of this audit committee.

A few minutes earlier, the leader of the official opposition Aref Salem had launched a final appeal to maintain a place for the opposition on this committee. This situation had prevailed since 2010 and a critical report by the Auditor General at the time.

Ensemble Montréal wanted to continue to be represented there by the mayor of Saint-Laurent, Alan DeSousa, who had been on the committee for 4 years. He is a chartered accountant. “The presence of the official opposition is a kind of vaccine,” he told city council. “It ensured that […] the authorities are not partisan. ”