“The thing I am most proud of in my life is my time at OCPM. » At the center of a controversy over her spending at the time she headed the Office de Consultation Publique de Montréal (OCPM), Dominique Ollivier claims she always acted in the “best interests of Montreal” and regrets his version of events ignored.
Published at 5:50 p.m.
“Someone would have told me that one day we would return [mon passage à l’OCPM] “In this case I would have said no, it’s not possible,” Dominique Ollivier explained directly in an interview with La Presse on Sunday.
She insists and signs off: “I didn’t steal, I didn’t cheat, I didn’t embezzle money.” I worked within the framework and respected the standards. »
Dominique Ollivier has been heavily criticized in recent weeks over her financial management as president of the OCPM. His travel and dining expenses, including a $347 oyster dinner for two at a Paris restaurant, were revealed by Quebecor media.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVE
The former President of the Executive Committee before the Committee on Finance and Administration on November 17, 2023.
She laments that “no one ever asked for her version of the facts.” “I was judged. I can’t say whether it’s fair or unjust. But I note that I was convicted without being given the opportunity to present my defense,” she says. She states that she conducted a 45-minute interview with Quebecor journalists, but that the report contained only “three excerpts of a few seconds.” “I found it little by little,” she said.
In an open letter published on Sunday in La Presse, she denounces that the “court of public opinion” has allowed itself to be carried away without checking the information and sources. “I just hope people are open to hearing my point of view,” she said.
The context has changed
Looking back, she has no regrets about the numerous trips she made as part of her mandate. “I think every trip was necessary,” she says. However, she admits that she would have avoided certain restaurants, including the oyster dinner that she supposedly got a refund for last Wednesday. “I definitely wouldn’t have done it again. “I deeply regret that it shocked people, even though I did it in good faith,” she said.
By the end of her term, the frequency of eating out had declined as the pandemic hit, she claims. “We started working more and more remotely. We no longer had to see each other in person as often. But we forget that these things didn’t exist from 2014 to 2019,” she says.
However, she acknowledges that going forward, the rules and policies surrounding OCPM spending will need to be “modernized.”
“Overly racist and evil”
Dominique Ollivier also condemns former Montreal mayor Denis Coderre’s comments about him. “He said: We are traveling to Mozambique to do safaris and not to receive information about the public consultation. That is unacceptable to me.” She considers the comment to be “overly racist and evil.”
“Firstly, he knows nothing about what is happening in Mozambique. In my opinion, this means that he cannot prescribe such things. Then, secondly, we traveled to Mozambique to take over the presidency of an association that he himself had applied for,” she says. Denis Coderre wanted Montreal to chair the 17th conference of the International Observatory of Participatory Democracy in 2017. The trip to Mozambique allowed the OCPM to assume the presidency of this international association he wanted, on behalf of Denis Coderre, explains Ms. Ollivier.
The former mayor, for his part, filed a complaint with the Quebec Municipal Commission to investigate Dominique Ollivier’s management of expenses during his mandate at the OCPM, TVA Nouvelles reported last week.
“I was speechless”
Dominique Ollivier also regrets having been condemned by the current president of the OCPM, Isabelle Beaulieu, without any solid evidence.
I was speechless. During the seven years I was there, I led an extremely dedicated team, working during days, evenings and weekends. They were always willing to come and help each other. We had created a structure that was too close-knit.
Dominique Ollivier
At a community appearance on Friday, Isabelle Beaulieu said instead that she inherited a poorly run organization with no clear framework and no code of ethics in which employees committed “theft of time.”
Mayor Valérie Plante will ask the council on Monday to place the OCPM under supervision and fire Isabelle Beaulieu. The organization’s funding will also be frozen until further notice due to the current crisis of confidence in its leaders.
With Isabelle Ducas and Philippe Teisceira-Lessard, La Presse