City of Montreal | The new mayor puts her priorities on track

Requests, a warning

“Montreal is at a pivotal moment. […] The City must refocus on its primary missions: offering quality services to citizens, putting its finances in order and improving its operations,” asserts the mayor in letters sent Wednesday to the 22 members of the executive committee. In passing, she reiterates some of her major priorities: tackling the housing crisis, reducing homelessness, strengthening security, “making ourselves a clean city” and promoting “inclusive” mobility. A warning is finally given to the members of the executive committee: innovate, but consult “the actors of society” before imposing decisions.

What do the letters contain?

For each elected official, M^me Martinez Ferrada determines “attributions”, which will be their priority tasks to accomplish by 2029. She entrusts, for example, to her number two, the president of the executive committee, Claude Pinard, the renewal of collective agreements at the City and the sanitation of labor relations. The mayor asks the new president of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), Aref Salem, to work with Quebec and Ottawa to “strengthen their financial participation” in mobility, in addition to devoting priority to the finalization of the blue line, the extension of the orange line, the Eastern Structuring Project (PSE) and the multiplication of lanes reserved for buses.

More security…and cameras

We must “increase security in all neighborhoods,” maintains the mayor, speaking to her manager in this matter, Dimitrios Jim Beis, mayor of the Pierrefonds-Roxboro district. He will have to realize a promise never kept by Valérie Plante: to provide the police with body cameras. Mr. Beis also has the mandate to “deploy more cameras in public spaces”. In terms of housing, the mayor of the Outremont district, Caroline Braun, will have to take inventory of “all vacant buildings” in the City which could accommodate residential projects and review the Regulations for a mixed metropolisalso called “20-20-20”, which was supposed to promote the construction of social housing.

Construction sites and AI

The mayor of the Saint-Laurent borough, Alan DeSousa, new head of mobility and infrastructure, is called upon to “systematically consult merchants when planning any construction site”, then to review this planning. He will be supported in this task by the head of optimization and municipal performance, Alexandre Teodoresco, who will have to establish a “rapid and secure artificial intelligence action plan” for the City of Montreal. Among other things, the mayor wants to speed up the issuance of permits in the metropolis, which still takes years in certain sectors. During the electoral campaign, Soraya Martinez Ferrada pleaded in favor of the use of artificial intelligence to manage road obstacles.

A practice from Ottawa

Public disclosure of “mandate letters” is a common practice in Ottawa, but not in Quebec or the City of Montreal. Former mayor Valérie Plante never did so in eight years, while Prime Minister François Legault was criticized in the past for refusing to do so. Former Minister of Tourism and Member of Parliament for Hochelaga in Justin Trudeau’s government, the new mayor “is therefore using her federal background at town hall”, analyzes professor specializing in municipal affairs Danielle Pilette, of the University of Quebec in Montreal. “It could go further during the mandate. The mayor could, for example, ask for more powers, when she is more in control of her files, to negotiate directly with the federal government in certain files,” concludes M.^me Drains.