2006 Annual Report: Office de consultation publique de Montréal Reviews Last Year

Montréal, June 18, 2007 – This morning, Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) President Louise Roy made public the annual report of the Office for 2006.

Since its inception in 2002, the Office has held more than 300 consultation meetings on some 60 projects, providing information to over 20,000 Montrealers and allowing them to express their opinions on a great variety of both local and metropolitan projects. The year 2006 saw the confirmation of the public consultation role of the Office on major metropolitan projects, a direct result of the changes brought to its mission under the December 2003 amendments to the City Charter. Unlike in 2005, all mandates entrusted to the Office last year dealt with urban planning and land use management projects.

In conducting consultations on those highly important projects, the Office began a process of reflection on a few major recurring questions concerning land use. The commissioners focused on the reconciliation of the development and protection of natural environments, and on the use of the consultation process as a forum for discussion on associated issues. This presented itself in projects located within the perimeter of the historic and natural borough of Mont Royal, but the problem may also arise in projects near large natural environments, such as eco-territories.

A second consideration concerned the place reserved for the automobile in new developments near métro stations. The Urban Plan provides for a densification of those areas as a means of implementing the desired increase in public transit use. On what, then, does one base discussions on the parking requirements of future occupants? On the place reserved for green spaces, often competing with parking spaces on limited territory? Two of the projects studied by the Office this year opened that debate.

The OCPM quite often deals with the construction or conversion of residential buildings. This was especially true in 2006, in projects involving the development of the site of the old Rosemont municipal yards and the conversion of the building Le Nordelec. The social mix is always a consideration: what are the conditions of a good social mix; what percentage of the buildings should be reserved for social or affordable housing; what are the governance options to be considered; the part to be reserved for coops, for non-profit organizations, and for the private sector?

The CHUM 2010 project established the foundations for a reflection on conditions surrounding the insertion of a major institutional complex in a very dense urban environment, in downtown Montréal. It is a highly complex issue, involving elements linked to the preservation of the oldest built heritage, the phasing of work, the effect on the neighbourhood housing stock, notably in terms of rental costs, commercial life, public health for residents while the work is in progress and, lastly, automobile circulation in the area surrounding the project. The traffic issue allowed us to examine the larger issues of managing transportation to downtown and reconstituting the urban fabric between Old Montréal and the Quartier Latin.

The Office also tackled other aspects of its mandate in 2006. We have begun to compile examples of past and present public consultation practices in Montréal boroughs and central departments. They display a great variety of often very innovative experiences. The first publication of this compilation was released in early 2007. The Office also focused on a training process for elected officials on the principles and practices of public consultation and participation. The product of our reflection on this matter has been submitted to political authorities of the city for comment. Further action should follow in 2007.

If 2006 was a year of change, 2007 will be a milestone year: the Office was created five years
ago. A first update will be in order in light of the evolution of the role of the Office and the importance of the consultation process in Montréal municipal life.

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Luc Doray
Tel.: (514) 872-3568
Cell: (514) 977-8365