Montreal: the opposition wants to be a tool of online petition

TOMA ICZKOVITS/QMI AGENCY

Sarah Daoust-Braun

Thursday, march 8, 2018 13:36

UPDATE
Thursday, march 8, 2018 13:41

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The official opposition hope that Montreal will put online a new tool of e-petition, developed under the management of Denis Coderre and already ready to be launched.

This tool “key in hand” would allow citizens to file on the internet petitions that are required to hold public consultations in Montreal. For the moment, the process requires 15 000 signatures on paper to the city-centre and 5000 signatures in the boroughs for a consultation to be launched.

“If we want to encourage civic participation and democratic life, it is logical to use this tool, in 2018,” said the interim leader of the opposition, Lionel Perez, according to which this new method would collect signatures faster.

The head of the smart city François Croteau has provided written assurances that this type of service to the citizens would be launched by the end of the year. According to the mayor of Rosemont, the citizens ‘ consultation, had never been one of the priorities of the previous administration.

Delayed by the elections

The former leadership of Denis Coderre had finalized the tool in January 2017, for a total cost of $ 150,000. A beta version of the website of the tool of petition would even be already available, according to the opposition.

The ex-mayor of Montreal had not experienced the tool before the elections in November 2017, since a draft of the petition can only be filed during a year of municipal elections, under the regulations on the right of initiative in matters of public consultation.

“It is ready. We could launch it in the space of a month and a half,” assured Lionel Perez. It would, however, add to the regulation in force since 2010.

For the moment, no discussion in this regard has been held with the new administration of Valérie Plant. A motion will be presented at the next city council.

A group of citizens has filed in the last days of a request to hold a public consultation concerning the prohibition of transit traffic on the way Camillien-Houde, a move supported by the opposition. The petitions that are currently circulating online are not acceptable by the City.