Charbonneau report: Montreal opposition calls on Mayor Denis Coderre to act
Projet Montréal calls for dismissal of borough mayors, less outsourcing, more rules for lobbyists
The official opposition at Montreal City Hall is demanding Mayor Denis Coderre purge his team of people named in the Charbonneau commission's final report on corruption.
Projet Montréal leader Luc Ferrandez, flanked by councillors Laurence Lavigne Lalonde and Alex Norris, highlighted several recommendations in the report, adding that the party has been advocating these changes for years now.
The opposition's main points include:
- Doing more to fight municipal corruption, beyond naming an inspector general.
- The removal of three borough mayors named in the Charbonneau report.
- Building more internal expertise to reduce dependence on private firms.
- Applying municipal tendering rules to non-profit and para-municipal corporations.
- Prosecuting public officials who have broken lobbying rules – along with the lobbyists.
More outsourcing, not less
On the issue of building internal expertise, Lavigne Lalonde – a city councillor for Mercier--Hochelaga-Maisonneuve – said Coderre has done the opposite of what the Charbonneau report recommends. She said he is outsourcing more projects to private firms, as well as the oversight for those projects.
Ferrandez, the borough mayor of Plateau Mont-Royal, said Coderre has in fact done little to combat corruption beyond creating the office of the inspector general.
"Whenever we bring up corruption with Mr. Coderre, he comes back to this one point," Ferrandez said. "We are asking how can he assure people from Union Montréal weren't involved in corruption?"
3 borough mayors named
The Charbonneau report mentions three members of former mayor Gérald Tremblay's Union Montréal who are now part of Coderre's administration: St-Léonard borough mayor Michel Bissonett, Montreal North borough mayor Gilles Deguire and St-Laurent borough mayor Alan DeSousa.
The report does not accuse them of wrongdoing but says they were in office when instances of collusion took place.
"We believe Mayor Coderre should take his responsibilities, and these individuals should no longer be part of his team," said Norris, a city councillor for the Plateau.
Coderre responds
At a news conference later Tuesday, Coderre dismissed Projet Montréal's call for a purge.
"No one has been blamed," he said. "There were witnesses who mentioned them.. If there's no blame, I don't see any reason to do otherwise."
The mayor did not respond to all the opposition's points but saluted the work of the commission and said his office will carefully read the 1,741-page report.
He also reiterated that his administration has taken an important step against collusion with the appointment of former Crown prosecutor Denis Gallant as inspector general.
"With the work of the inspector general, we send a strong message that we want to protect ourselves against corruption," he said.
"The controller general just showed up a few months ago with a report about the results of some of the policies regarding the cost of the bids. So it is working. But are we going to be vigilant? Of course we're being vigilant," he added.