Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante unveiled her executive committee this morning in the main foyer inside City Hall. The committee is the city's top decision making body.
"It was important to me to find the right balance between men and women, between experienced politicians and experience professionals, between borough mayors and city councilors," Plante said, touting the inclusivity of her newly appointed executive committee. "We promised an inclusive and balanced executive committee, and that is what we delivered."
As expected Benoit Dorais, mayor of the Sud-Ouest borough, will serve as President of the committee. Plante made the announcement late in the campaign. Dorais will also oversee the city's finances. The committee's leadership is rounded out by Magda Popeanu, councilor for Côte-des-Neiges, and Sylvain Ouellet, councillor for Hoshelaga. Both will serve as vice presidents and oversee housing and diversity, and infrastructure and water, respectively.
Here are the other nine committee members and the porfolios they will oversee:
Serving on the Associate Committee are: Sophie Mauzerolle, Alex Norris, Marianne Giguère, Craig Sauvé, and Suzie Miron.
The 12 member committee consists of seven men and five women; of the five members appointed to the associate committee, two are men and three are women.
However, critics were quick to point out the lack of racial and cultural diversity on the committee.
"Over a third of the population of Montreal comes from the visible minorites; over half the population comes from an immigrant background. That is not reflected in this executive committee and that is very worrisome," said Lionel Perez, leader of the official opposition.
All 12 committee members and five associate members are white, something that Valerie Plante attributes to the lack of minority candidates inside her party. Perez reponded by saying there were members of his party who were qualified and could have filled those positions.
Only one of the 17 appointed members comes from outside Projet Montreal. Jean-Francois Parenteau, borough mayor of Verdun, originally ran under the banner of Équipe Denis Coderre, but left that party in order to take his seat on the executive committee. He will sit as an independent.
"It was a moral and ethical issue for me," Parenteau told reporters on Monday after officially being sworn in to the executive committee. "It's not acceptable to sit with my team, and also sit on the executive committee. I will be a stranger in both places and I don't want to play this game. I want to be fair and to be clear with everybody. My first goal is to work for the citizens and for Montrealers."
Both Plante and Parenteau refuted the suggestion that Parenteau's position on the committee was predicated on his leaving Équipe Coderre. Instead, Plante said that for confidentiality purposes, she only asked Parenteau to step down from his party's caucus. A fact that is disputed by Lionel Perez.
"Half-a-dozen members from my party were asked to sit on the executive committee at different times and all were asked to leave the party," said Perez, who claimed that Plante walked back her demand only after they all refused. "She said she wanted reduce and put aside partisanship; she failed from the get go."
The committee will gather for their first official meeting on Wednesday morning at 8:30am