Mayor Bruno Marchand’s mission to the Scandinavian countries in March raises a number of questions and imposes performance obligations that will allow their relevance to be assessed, especially at this crucial time for the tram project.
Yesterday, during the press conference before the first council of the year, the mayor had to justify this “journey” in which he will take part from March 22nd to 31st.
Mr. Marchand, accompanied by five other people, will travel to Copenhagen, Malmo and Helsinki to focus on active mobility, public transport, including the tram, and homelessness.
In particular, we can question the time, duration, number and selection of participants.
And what is the benefit of considering installing a tram in the winter when the project is so advanced?
Why is the deputy head of the mayor’s office attending when there is no representative from the tram project office?
What will be the contribution of the Director of the International Relations Office while another member of that office will be present?
more transparency
The answers to these questions received since Thursday were not precise enough. For clarification, I tried to speak to Pierre-Luc Lachance, Vice President of the Executive Committee and responsible for active mobility. I would like to know his motivations in relation to these visits that he will be attending.
Unfortunately, that was not possible at the time of writing.
However, Mr Marchand explained yesterday that it is never too late to question and draw inspiration from similar projects elsewhere.
We need to learn and be inspired by the best and there are still some elements to be clarified, he explained. It will be interesting to see how high the contribution will be specifically for the tram.
No cakewalk
Furthermore, Bruno Marchand is right when he says that some meetings have to be held in person. Indeed, it is not a pleasure trip or “pleasure trip” but a work assignment.
Having covered multiple missions for almost 15 years, I can attest that the schedule is grueling.
The days are busy, mostly with relevant meetings. Sequel follows.
