a year after expense scandal, montreal's public consultation office wants to rebuild trust
ocpm priorities for 2025 include ethics code, new nomination process
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"public confidence was shaken towards the institution in its management," said office de consultation publique de montréal (ocpm) new president philippe bourke of the effect of last year's scandal on public perception of the ocpm. "this opened the door to questions about its relevance, and there are issues of trust there."
mario beauregard
/
the canadian press images
it has been a year since an expense scandal rocked the office de consultation publique de montréal (ocpm), and the body’s new president told a council committee hearing on friday it will be months before an ethics code and a formal governance structure are in place.
“we’re not very advanced,” philippe bourke told the council’s finance and administration committee, which is holding public hearings on montreal’s $7.28-billion 2025 municipal operating budget. he was referring to the development of a strategic plan for which the ocpm plans to go to public tender to enlist the help of an outside firm.
other priorities for 2025 include the drafting of an ethics code for ocpm commissioners and a formal process for naming commissioners and renewing the mandates of existing commissioners.
however, bourke, who started in his position in january, noted several actions have been taken during the past year, including a legislative change that makes the ocpm a department of the city, subject to the same budgetary guidelines and administrative rules as all city departments. bourke added controls have been put in place, including an end to “self-approval” of expenses by the ocpm’s top brass.
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“public confidence was shaken towards the institution in its management,” he said of the effect of the scandal on public perception of the ocpm.
“this opened the door to questions about its relevance, and there are issues of trust there.”
the ocpm’s city-financed annual budget for 2025 will be $3.095 million, the same as it was in 2024. its mission as an independent and neutral body is to hold public consultations, mostly on mandates that are conferred on it, such as changes requested to the city’s urban plan to accommodate development projects, and issue recommendations to the city’s elected officials based on the public’s feedback.
last year’s scandal led to the ouster of then-ocpm president isabelle beaulieu and, later, ocpm secretary-general guy grenier after it was revealed successive ocpm managers had been expensing costly equipment, trips and dinners to the city for years.
in june, montreal auditor-general andrée cossette issued a series of recommendations to redress an absence of governance rules at the ocpm after concluding the publicly funded public consultation office lacked any formal management framework or oversight throughout its 20-year history.
the ocpm’s new management provided a plan to redress each recommendation to the auditor-general in september, bourke said.
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the auditor-general’s recommendations included adopting a governance framework, including an appropriate structure for the ocpm, a strategic plan with objectives, targets and indicators, and transparent reporting to relevant stakeholders.
bourke said he takes the rebuilding of public confidence “very seriously,” adding “it’s fundamental to work as much on confidence in the rigour of our administrative management as on confidence in the relevance of our role and, i would say, in the influence of our work.”
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