An association of public transport users denounces the decision of the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority (ARTM) to hold its annual public meeting only online. The group is also calling for a change in the law so that the organization’s board of directors now sits in public.
“The ARTM is regularly criticized for its lack of transparency. It is paradoxical that the organization chooses to reduce transparency, ”insists the spokesperson for the Association for collective transport of the South Shore (ATCRS), Axel Fournier.
He thus refers to the Authority’s choice to hold its annual meeting only online, scheduled for Thursday evening. Last year, at the end of the health crisis, the traditional activity was held in person, just as during the pre-COVID era, in 2018 and 2019 in particular. This year, the format “prevents direct interactions between citizens and decision-makers”, worries the ATCRS.
For Mr. Fournier, the population should in fact be able to access the content of the meetings of the ARTM board of directors, which meets every month. “One session per year is not enough. We have members who asked written questions last year that were not answered in public session due to lack of time,” he says.
His association even had to “write a letter to the ARTM, because the citizens had not received a response more than two weeks after the public session”, insists Mr. Fournier.
The ATCRS sent a letter Thursday to the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, in order to obtain a legislative amendment forcing the Authority’s board of directors to “meet in public each month, as is the case for municipalities”.
Bonnardel had mentioned it
Such a possibility has already been mentioned by the former Minister of Transport, François Bonnardel, today at Public Security. In his report on the application of the law on the ARTM, published last year, he noted that “more transparent management is essential and could result in particular in the holding of public meetings of the board of directors. administration, following the example of the process in effect within public transport companies”.
Called to react on Thursday, the spokesperson for the Regional Authority, Simon Charbonneau, indicated that in 2022, “only about ten people showed up on site during the public session, while online participation is remained important and appreciated.
“Video conferencing and live streaming on social media and the web are now firmly entrenched in the habits of a diverse segment of the population. In a difficult financial context where each dollar invested must first be translated into a maximum of services and, above all, in order to reach a greater number of people and transmit a maximum of responses, this formula is already resulting in record participation in 2023,” insisted Mr. Charbonneau.
Although it is not possible to “deal with all the questions in session”, the ARTM nevertheless undertakes “to answer the questions received in writing”. However, the question period has been extended from 60 minutes to 90 minutes to answer as many people as possible, says the spokesperson.
For the rest, he reminds that citizens are invited to send their questions in advance in order to ensure that they are answered as adequately as possible. Montrealers will also be offered the opportunity “to transmit questions live during the session”.