Charbonneau report: Montreal opposition calls on Mayor Denis Coderre to act

The official opposition at Montreal City Hall is demanding Mayor Denis Coderre purge his team of people namedin the Charbonneaucommission's final report on corruption.

Projet Montral leaderLuc Ferrandez, flanked by councillorsLaurence Lavigne Lalonde andAlex Norris,highlighted several recommendations in thereport, adding thatthe 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 boroughmayors named in the Charbonneau report.
• Building more internal expertise to reduce dependence on private firms.
• Applying municipal tenderingrulestonon-profitand para-municipal corporations.
• Prosecutingpublic officials who have broken lobbying rules along with the lobbyists.

More outsourcing, not less

On the issue of building internal expertise, Lavigne Lalondea citycouncillorforMercier--Hochelaga-MaisonneuvesaidCoderrehas done the opposite of what the Charbonneau report recommends. She said he isoutsourcing 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 donelittle to combat corruption beyondcreating 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 Montral weren't involved in corruption?"

3 borough mayors named

The Charbonneau report mentions three members of former mayor Grald Tremblay's Union Montral who are now part of Coderre's administration:St-Lonardborough mayor Michel Bissonett, Montreal North borough mayor Gilles Deguireand St-Laurent borough mayor Alan DeSousa.

The report does not accuse them of wrongdoingbut 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 newsconference later Tuesday, Coderre dismissed Projet Montral'scall 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 pointsbut 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 importantstep against collusion with the appointmentof 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 witha report about the results of some of the policiesregarding the cost of the bids. So it is working. But are we going to be vigilant? Of course we're being vigilant," he added.