Gatineau considers Municipal Public Consultation Office
Aiming to improve transparency regarding development projects, Gatineau’s Section de la Planification stratégique suggested the city establish an independent Public Consultation Office on November 3. The suggestion went to councillors and received mixed reviews, with some concerned regarding its financing particulars.
Calling it the Office de Consultation Publique de Gatineau (OCPG), Section de la Planification stratégique director Suzanne Dagenais said that creating an independent office responsible for public consultation activities would be an optimal way of addressing problems with the current system. She said the OCPG would consist of an independent committee falling under the municipal council, with no members being elected officials or municipal employees.
“The word ‘independent’ is very important here,” Dagenais said. “That’s what strengthens the office … that it is not part of the city’s organizational structure.” Its main duty would be to conduct public consultations approved by municipal council and the executive committee, regarding projects, land development, and urbanism regulations. Noting that public consultations would be carried out in a similar way to how they are done now, its functions would include implementing credible, transparent, and efficient consultation methods, hosting consultations on all requested subjects, and forming committees for consultation activities that are put in place.
Subjects brought to the OCPG for public consultation would include those aiming to modify the city’s land-use and development plan, its urban plan or a particular urbanism project (PPU), all projects intending to elaborate policies, strategies, or urbanism, heritage and environmental revision, major residential projects significantly impacting sites, or anything else requested by municipal council.
Dagenais said the city used Montreal’s public consultation office established 18 years ago, as a model. Feeling positive about the initiative, Plateau district councillor Maude Marquis-Bissonnette believes it’s about time for the city to update its public consultation protocols and that the OCPG would improve transparency with residents, develop better projects and respond to specific issues.
Having supported the concept throughout the process, Hull-Wright district councillor Cédric Tessier said adopting it would be a positive step in the right direction towards responding to people’s needs regarding public consultations. Addressing potential qualms about the eventual cost, he added that the expected budget for the project is around a third of what Montreal invested in their public consultation office.
Tessier also clarified that not all consultation would be conducted by the OCPG, noting that it doesn’t diminish municipal councillors’ role regarding public consultation. He specified that municipal council mandated the establishment of an independent public consultation office for Gatineau during last year’s budgetary discussions, and that the city has wanted to do so since 2013.
Aylmer district councillor Audrey Bureau requested that the city consult representatives of local residents’ associations regarding the OCPG concept. Dagenais said it could feasibly be added to the planning process sometime this winter, noting that its impact on the project’s timeline will be evaluated.
Proposing to invest approximately $800,000 in the project, $500,000 should go to people’s salaries and benefits, $200,000 for professional services, and $100,000 towards its operation. The city’s treasurer would also be the OCPG’s treasurer.
Questioning the OCPG’s necessity at this time, considering the pandemic’s economic impact, Deschênes district councillor Mike Duggan said he doesn’t see how the city can justify investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in a “non-essential service”.
“I remain unconvinced,” Duggan said. “$800,000 results in a tax increase of around 0.2 per cent.”
For 2021, Dagenais noted that the city would need to finance up to $250,000 for the office from its municipal budget – that will be discussed next week – to which another $125,000 would be added from the city’s unspent budget of 2020.
Municipal council should vote on the project during its upcoming 2021 budgetary discussions.
---Legal conundrum
As it stands, the city doesn’t have the influence to create an independent entity such as it intends with the OCPG. To earn the power to put it in place, the city requires a legislative modification in one of two ways, a private law or an omnibus bill, with provincial government approval.
The omnibus bill was said to be the recommended option, since a private law necessitates a more complicated legal process, and the law needs to be adopted before the spring of 2021 to respect the project’s timeline. Creating the OCPG also necessitates ratifying a right called the Droit d’initiative citoyenne en consultation publique, Dagenais said. Allowing people to initiate a public consultation on a given subject, given certain conditions, the right requires the creation of a new municipal law.
