Parliamentary hearings into a proposed law aimed at giving Quebec cities more autonomy and power ended this week but critics are wary of one element of the bill that they say would take power out of Montreal residents’ hands.
While Bill 122 would give cities more say over urban planning, a provision in the bill would “abolish the obligation to have amendments to the planning by-laws of Ville de Montreal and Ville de Quebec approved through a referendum,” according to the bill’s text.
Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre praised that element of the bill, saying referendums tend to only benefit a small group of residents.
“When we talk about referendum, we talk about obstruction instead of construction,” he said. “You have other cases where there was a referendum and you had a few people who blocked a tremendous project for the overall population.”
The opposition at City Hall disagrees. Projet Montreal leader Valerie Plante spoke at the National Assembly hearings, asking that the bill be amended to defend democracy.
“It’s the only way the population has to say ‘We don’t like the project as it is, let’s make it better,’” she said. “If we don’t have the referendum mechanism, it will beome at the discretion of the administration to have a public consultation or not and that is very dangerous.”
Coderre said Montrealers will always have a say in projects, even without the option of having a referendum.
“It’s better for us,” he said. “After a referendum, it’s over, it’s done. After the (Office of Public Consultations of Montreal), we take recommendations and fine tune a project.”
Bill 122 by CTV_Montreal on Scribd
