The secretary general of the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM), Guy Grenier, is no longer employed by the organization, within which his questionable expenses, at the expense of taxpayers, had caused an outcry in the last months.
“As of February 5, Mr. Grenier is no longer employed by the OCPM,” confirmed by email Gabriel Martre-Dufour, the public affairs assistant of the organization which receives annual funding from the City of Montreal of approximately three million dollars. “You will understand that we cannot further comment on the file or communicate personal information which is part of the personal file of an employee,” he adds in the declaration sent to Duty.
“The presidency is considering the next steps and a person loaned by the City is taking over in the interim,” continues Mr. Martre-Dufour.
In recent months, Guy Grenier, who occupied a key position within the OCPM, found himself at the heart of a scandal revealed by the Quebecor media concerning questionable expenses made by members of the organization. These revelations notably led to the resignation of Dominique Ollivier from the position of president of the executive committee of the City of Montreal, due to her exuberant bills charged to Montreal taxpayers during her time at the head of the OCPM, from 2014 to 2021. The former president of the organization, Isabelle Beaulieu, was also fired by the municipal council last November. The OCPM was then placed under supervision.
The mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, as well as the Minister of Municipal Affairs, Andrée Laforest, had for their part called for the departure of Guy Grenier in November, who then refused to leave his post. Mr. Grenier notably found himself at the heart of a $347 oyster dinner in Paris held in 2016 to mark his birthday.
Last December, Valérie Plante’s administration appointed the former president of the Bureau des publics publics du Québec (BAPE) Philippe Bourke to take the reins of the OCPM on an interim basis.