Quebec wants to lighten the rules for awarding contracts in municipalities

Quebec's Minister of Municipal Affairs, Andrée Laforest, holds a press conference in Scott, Quebec, on February 8, 2024. (The Canadian Press/Jacques Boissinot)

The Legault government wants to simplify the rules for awarding contracts in municipalities, which are currently said to be too "complex." The Minister of Municipal Affairs, Andrée Laforest, hopes to table a bill to this effect before Christmas.

"We're going to lighten the regulatory measures needed to get projects off the ground in towns and cities," the minister told a press scrum at the Municipal Democracy Summit organized by the Union des municipalités du Québec (UMQ) on Thursday.

More specifically, the project will aim to lighten the rules for calls for tenders and bids.

The minister said she wants to "keep the process completely transparent and legal." "But it will be much faster. (...) My colleagues (in the Council of Ministers) are in the process of seeing what measures could be added or removed," she added.

According to Minister Laforest, her bill is the logical follow-up to that of her colleague Jonatan Julien, which aimed to speed up the construction of infrastructure projects and was adopted last week.

The initiative was welcomed by the UMQ. "We are working with the ministry to be able to respond better to our needs. The administrative process is becoming increasingly complex, costly and time-consuming," said UMQ President Martin Damphousse.

Damphousse gave the example of a park project that could be speeded up once the legislation is passed.

"The red tape of recent years for grant applications, or for requisitions of any kind, is increasingly complex, especially for smaller municipalities, because they have fewer staff. Unfortunately, some people don't even apply for grants to which they would be entitled because of the red tape," explained Damphousse.   

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Oct. 17, 2024.