Recent media revelations about the governance and spending of the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) in recent years have led many to call for its abolition. Others, however, have expressed a lack of awareness of the important role played by this body in the life of the community and in the social, economic and cultural development of Montreal.
Héritage Montréal believes that it would be extremely harmful for Montreal to do without such a body. Beyond the corrections that need to be made to ensure that its management is consistent with public expectations, we must maintain the OCPM and see to it that it fulfills its function better. In this spirit, we have added our name to the attached joint letter, which was submitted to the Commission des finances et de l'administration de la Ville de Montréal on November 17, on the occasion of the public study on the financial and administrative management of the OCPM (see https://montreal.ca/evenements/gestion-financiere-et-administrative-de-loffice-de-consultation-publique-de-montreal-59340).
It should be remembered that this body is the fruit of sustained demands from Montreal society for independent mechanisms for consultation and public review of projects, in the service of better decisions on the planning and development of the metropolis.
In 1984, a shopping mall project on McGill College Avenue, supported by Mayor Drapeau, sparked a lively debate uniting organizations - notably Héritage Montréal - and the business community. Faced with this unprecedented alliance, the developer agreed to fund an independent public consultation and respect its recommendations. 40 years later, people are still enjoying the avenue and its view of the mountain.
This exercise and others conducted by citizen and university groups led the City, under Mayor Doré's administration, to hold its first municipal consultation in 1987 and, in 1988, to adopt a policy and create the Bureau de consultation de Montréal (BCM). The abolition of the BCM in 1994 in favor of commissions of elected officials brought back a chaotic era of conflict over urban planning and development issues, which lasted until municipal reform and the creation of the OCPM in 2002.
For over 20 years, the OCPM's team of commissioners and analysts has conducted dozens of consultations, listening to thousands of individuals, organizations, experts and promoters, whether economic, social-community or cultural, to explain, examine and comment on real estate projects, development plans or municipal policies, including on subjects selected through the exercise of the citizens' right of initiative. These consultations have highlighted the multidimensional nature of these issues, making it all the more necessary to offer society, in all its diversity, the opportunity to express itself. They have also instilled a new culture of communication and contributed to more informed decision-making by bringing the various stakeholders together to present their analyses publicly.
In addition to these numerous information and hearing sessions, and the rigorous and detailed reports of the consultations it has carried out, the Office has built up a veritable virtual library of information, analyses and studies, particularly on heritage, which would otherwise have remained inaccessible or not even been carried out had it not been for these consultations, which encouraged professionals and scientists to express their views in the same way as citizens of all ages.
After more than 20 years of existence, the OCPM is part of the heritage of Montreal institutions serving the common good, a heritage that distinguishes the metropolis. Beyond its governance and management, there is room for improvement if it is to better fulfill its public service mission. We see three of them:
- Follow-up of consultation recommendations by the municipal administration. In the past, the City's Executive Committee published its responses to the OCPM's recommendations. Today, this is no longer done, and the follow-up to the OCPM's recommendations is not transparent, which is particularly disappointing for the people and groups who take the time to get informed and mobilize to speak before the OCPM's commissioners, at the City's invitation. A follow-up table should be prepared and systematically published on the Office's website, for example, to accompany each consultation report.
- Public review of government projects. Many of the major projects affecting Montreal involve governments or their agencies. Collectively, these projects would benefit from public scrutiny through the OCPM, within a framework that ensures access to information and due diligence in the process. The recent case of the master plan for the former Royal Victoria Hospital showed how such an exercise can generate not only social acceptability, but also creativity that can lead to solutions, particularly in terms of the occupation of some of the heritage buildings in this emblematic complex.
- New practices. Public consultation and participation are evolving in response to the complexity of the issues and the need for greater collective intelligence. The OCPM has been able to innovate, adapt and deploy its action upstream and through new tools in order to reach and engage a greater number of people and organizations to contribute to informed decisions. We need to increase the OCPM's capacity to mobilize this collective intelligence.
