Orange cones in Montreal | Better fluidity this summer, promises the Plante administration

Despite criticism from the Auditor General (AG) of the City of Montreal about its poor management of construction sites, the Plante administration claims to have already begun to tackle the problem and maintains that motorists will see a difference in their journeys as soon as this summer.

Isabelle Ducas
The Press

“We did not wait for the report of the VG to put in place several actions”, indicated Tuesday the president of the executive committee of the City of Montreal, Dominique Ollivier, reacting to the report tabled Monday at the municipal council.

“In 2020, when we started talking about site coordination, we had planned a deployment over four years. We are currently in year two of our deployment. Of course, for some measures, it takes a little longer to see the effects, but we should see improvements this year. »

In her report, Auditor General Michèle Galipeau deplores the fact that municipal authorities do not have all the information on the planned or active construction sites on their territory, which prevents them from properly coordinating the work. The central city sometimes even ignores the construction sites that come under certain arrondissements.

M^me Ollivier recognizes that there is still work to be done to improve the flow of traffic through the orange cones in Montreal.

“Will by magic tomorrow morning this be fixed? No. But now we have a clear idea of ​​where we’re going, where we want to land, and I think we’re going to further improve communication and the deployment of our tools. »

But the leader of the opposition at City Hall, Aref Salem, does not believe that the City is on the right track to improve its coordination of construction sites and believes that the administration is “disempowering”.

“They are in their fifth year in power, and we have been going around in circles for five years,” said Salem, at a press briefing on Tuesday. “They are not taking the necessary actions. »

At a press conference, Auditor General Michèle Galipeau also seemed skeptical about the possibility that municipal services will succeed in improving the flow of traffic through construction sites this summer. “We are already in May,” she points out. The planning is done in advance, that’s for sure. But by working quickly, for next year, we could succeed. »

War of numbers on the trees

In its report, the VG also deplores the lack of information on the state of public trees on the territory of the City. The maintenance varies according to the boroughs, which compromises their life expectancy, she writes.

We learned in the report that, between 2012 and 2020, Montreal would have planted some 100,000 trees, but that due to the ravages of the emerald ash borer and the felling of trees carried out over the years, the metropolis would have only 30,146 more trees on its territory.

To these figures, Dominique Ollivier responds with other data: with the planting of 207,000 trees since 2012, the City has a positive growth balance of 123,500 trees over the past 10 years, she maintains.

The administration nevertheless intends to respond to the Auditor General’s recommendations by preparing a guide for developing an arboreal management plan, by updating Montréal’s arboreal inventory and by developing a normative framework for tree maintenance.

Nor does the City agree with the AG on the data regarding the implementation of its previous recommendations.

Michèle Galipeau estimates that, out of 471 recommendations whose implementation was analyzed in 2021, only 47% have been applied, and that more than 75% are more than two years behind schedule. “This is not acceptable,” repeated M.^me Galipeau several times.

But^me Olivier makes a different calculation. “We, when we ask for our services, of the 900 or so recommendations she has made in the last five years, 78% have been carried out,” she says.