Projet Montreal to create central body to oversee infrastructure projects, if elected

The leader of Projet Montréal and mayoral candidate Luc Rabouin said that he will create a centralized municipal body to oversee the city’s public works projects, with the goal of improving efficiency, if his party is elected in November.

In a press release, he announced that the body will be created by the middle of the term and will be mandated to plan and manage all of city’s infrastructure projects within the city.

“With Action Chantier, there will be a single person responsible for all construction sites in Montréal, from planning to completion, who will be accountable for their decisions to avoid ghost construction sites,” Rabouin said. “Fewer delays, fewer cost overruns, less bureaucracy: more efficiency.”

Taking inspiration from major metropolitan cities like New York, Paris, London which have created such unified bodies, Action Chantier will become the single coordinator of city’s projects, he said.

Fewer orange cones

Action Chantier will revisit the use of orange cones to reduce their proliferation, the press release said. It will also end the fragmentation of the responsibilities, reduce the delays and avoid cost overruns.

Rabouin also announced an increase in the duration of aid received by businesses affected by public works projects from two months to six months.

Thursday’s announcement comes after Ensemble Montreal mayoral candidate Soraya Martinez Ferrada, who is ahead of Rabouin in the latest Léger polls, promised similar to coordinate construction projects after criticizing the Projet Montréal administration led by Valérie Plante.

Ferrada’s commitments included inventory of worksites and prohibition of repeated excavation of streets as well real-time information sharing to residents and businesses on impact of projects in their neighbourhood.

Montrealers are set to go municipal polls on Nov. 2.