Ensemble Montréal demands accountability for deadly Old Montreal fire

Montreal’s Official Opposition at City Hall is demanding accountability after seven people were killed in a deadly fire in an Old Montreal building.

Ensemble Montréal leader Aref Salem, Official Opposition’s critic for public security, Abdelhaq Sari, and the Mayor of the borough of Saint-Laurent, Alan DeSousa, held a press scrum on Monday morning demanding that light be shed on the tragedy, as well as “on the process which assures the safety and conformity of building transformation work in the borough of Ville-Marie.”

“How many more buildings are non-compliant and how did the City of Montreal miss this? Information is trickling in, but it’s a real mess and there is obviously a serious and worrisome safety issue. This problem is not to be taken lightly,” said Salem.

Ensemble Montréal is asking for a public inquiry by the coroner and is also calling for an investigation by the Office of the Inspector General of the City of Montreal, “into the process which issues transformation permits as, in this case, they were granted in spite of the non-conformity of the building’s architectural plans.”

“The party is also calling for the Inspector General to investigate inspections of buildings built before 1940 in the borough of Ville-Marie,” they said in a press release.

“It’s been more than a week that we’ve been asking for explanations and it’s been a week that the borough and the administration have been burying themselves in a silence. It takes a rigorous and objective person to shed light on this troubling and dismaying situation. That person is the Inspector General,” added Sari.

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The party says that in the last week, several journalistic investigations have revealed that the borough of Ville-Marie granted numerous dwelling transformation permits, “despite the architectural plans submitted not meeting basic safety standards.”

The opposition “questioned how permits could be issued to the owner of this building in 2019 and 2021 when many of its rooms, particularly those located in the basement, do not have windows that open. Despite these disturbing revelations that compromise citizens’ safety, there is radio silence from the borough of Ville-Marie and the Plante administration.”

Ensemble Montréal will table a motion at the next City Council meeting on April 17.

They said they have also sent a letter to the Coroner’s Office to request a public inquiry into the Place D’Youville fire.

“Montrealers and tourists alike rely on the City of Montreal to ensure that the building they are staying in is compliant; it is a kind of watchdog. If there is someone somewhere who has cut corners in the permit-issuing process or in performing inspections, we need to know, and quickly,” said DeSousa.