Montreal’s public consultation office president Isabelle Beaulieu admitted to making mistakes but quickly went on the offensive Friday morning, exposing numerous problems in the leadership of Dominique Ollivier’s former government.
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Ms. Beaulieu is testifying before the City of Montreal’s Finance and Administration Commission on Friday morning to explain her questionable spending and management.
“I have made mistakes, I recognize them, I accept them,” she explained at the opening. The last few weeks have been difficult.”
Above all, the current president described a series of management problems that preceded her arrival, particularly in the human resources area.
“There were a lot of gaps and there are still gaps,” she said. After reviewing, we may discover more.”
Theft of time
Ms Beaulieu spoke in particular about “time theft” at the OCPM.
“There was a very free interpretation of who was in the office,” she said.
For example, under Dominique Ollivier’s presidency, it was common practice to close the office for “at least a week” at Christmas, but all employees were paid as if they were hours worked, she testified.
Dominique Ollivier, former president of the Office de Consultation Publique de Montréal (OCPM) Photo Agence QMI, JOEL LEMAY
Isabelle Beaulieu reports that when she took office, certain employees received vacation pay equal to 6% of their salary and also took weeks of paid vacation.
She claims to have put an end to these practices.
Ms Beaulieu reiterated that she would put an end to expensive work lunches and retirement gifts.
She blames her predecessors for the trips
“I relied on the approach of my predecessors when it came to entertainment costs, restaurants and travel. However, I have reduced the frequency and amount of travel,” she said.
She says she only found out this week that there was a policy on these fees because nothing was presented to her when she arrived.
“Nothing obliges the Public Consultation Office to make international declarations,” argued Ms. Beaulieu.
The president also pointed out that she learned this week how our investigative office announced on Wednesday that the comptroller had informed her predecessor, Dominique Ollivier, about travel and restaurant expenses.
“No, no one had ever mentioned this letter to me. Even though the former Secretary General was in possession of this letter, he still went on trips and outings to restaurants,” she lamented.
For her part, Ms. Beaulieu assures that since she took office she has never been questioned by the City of Montreal about her finances.
A crisis that comes from activists
Ms Beaulieu also returned to allegations that she created a toxic climate when she arrived in February 2022.
The outside firm hired by Ms. Beaulieu to investigate the situation says employees who met them confirmed that they were “Projet Montréal sympathizers.”
They tried to “weaken” the president and have her “kicked out” because she was not the choice of Valérie Plante’s party, as employees of the external company said.
According to Ms. Beaulieu, the disgruntled employees had close ties to Dominique Ollivier, who resigned from his post as chairman of the executive committee of the Plante government on Monday amid our investigation.
That company’s report, which Ms. Beaulieu submitted during her testimony, also said that the president’s “micromanagement attitude” was denounced by employees she met.
“Outraged” commissioner
The eight Commissioners who questioned Isabelle Beaulieu in the Commission this Friday deeply regretted that Ms. Beaulieu had not sent her numerous documents this morning, even though elected officials had been requesting them for several days.
Ms Beaulieu says she was “running out of time”.
Alan DeSousa said he was “outraged.”
A little later he added that “the credibility of the office is currently almost zero.”