Valérie Plante tightens her control over the town hall and its bodies responsible for avoiding ethical slippages, in the wake of her electoral victory.
For the first time since the Tremblay era, the municipal administration excluded the elected representatives of the opposition from the financial audit committee of Montreal and reserved the chairmanship of the commission that oversees the Office of the Inspector General (BIG ).
The Leader of the Opposition is worried about a “decline in transparency” in Montreal, while Mr.me Plante claims to “work with openness”.
In 2010, when scandals plagued Montreal City Hall and following a critical report from the Auditor General, the audit committee recommended the entry of the opposition among its members. The decision was supposed to guarantee “greater transparency” and “better governance”, says Mayor Gerald Tremblay.
His recommendation has been followed until today. However, the appointment of three elected from Projet Montréal last Wednesday seems to confirm that the opposition will henceforth not have a chair around this table. Mayors of demerged towns and independent experts sit on it, however.
The Commission on Inspector General, for its part, has never been chaired by the administration since its creation in 2013. Jérôme Normand, an elected representative of Projet Montréal in Ahuntsic-Cartierville, has now taken over. .
” A major problem ”
For Aref Salem, the opposition leader at town hall, these decisions mark a worrying shift in the Plante administration.
“We are in the process of managing transparency at the city level,” he said. “We agree that we had very difficult times before 2013. In order not to fall into this perception of lack of transparency, we appointed the opposition in positions [importantes]. We created a certain tradition. ”
PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, PRESS ARCHIVES
Aref Salem, Leader of the Opposition at City Hall
In his opinion, “it doesn’t look like there isn’t a member of the opposition checking the city’s budget,” he said of the audit committee. He wanted to renew the mandate of the mayor of Saint-Laurent, Alan DeSousa, who is a chartered accountant.
The presidency of the Commission on the Inspector General should not be in the hands of the administration overseen by the same Inspector General, he continued. As committee chairman, “we can play with the dates of the meetings, we can control the agendas of the meetings, there are things that can – at the limit – not be provided to the commissioners”, he said. Mr. Salem. “This is where there is a major problem. ”
In a written statement, the mayor’s office argued that city council committee seats were allocated “fairly based on election results.”
The team of Mme Plante argued that there was no “proper tradition” of having the opposition on the audit committee or chairing the Commission on the Inspector General. “Our administration has always worked with openness with all the parties represented and we will continue to do so,” said Marikym Gaudreault, press secretary.
She took the opportunity to criticize Ensemble Montreal for its choice of nomination. “Out of the 11 better paid positions of president and vice-president of committees, Ensemble Montreal has appointed only 2 women, or 18%,” she wrote. “We respectfully urge [à] Together Montreal [de] make an effort. ”