2023-11-14 05:00:00
In the midst of controversy over the questionable expenses of the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM), the mayor of Montreal and members of her cabinet have committed to reimbursing the alcohol served during a well-watered dinner in Vienna which had been billed to Montreal taxpayers.
Last April, Valérie Plante was on a study mission on housing in the Austrian capital, with a delegation of eleven other people.
Our Bureau of Investigation discovered that on April 25, the delegation shared a dinner for €1,224, or CA$1,878, at the Und Flora restaurant located in the Austrian capital. An amount entirely assumed by the City of Montreal, and therefore by Montreal taxpayers.
Nearly a third of the bill, or $538, concerns the purchase of eight bottles of wine, four of white and four of red.
On the bill from the Und Flora restaurant, we see that Valérie Plante and eleven other guests shared four bottles of white wine at 164 euros ($250) and four bottles of red wine at 188 euros ($288). Each guest had a three-course menu for 50 euros ($76.50). Invoice provided by the City of Montreal
Questioned about this last week, the mayor’s office argued that it was an error.
“Alcohol was served at the welcome dinner in Vienna, as the event was wrongly considered a welcome and working meeting to mark the launch of the mission. Since this situation was brought to our attention, we have questioned this vision of the event since in our eyes it is a dinner. The alcohol bill will therefore be reimbursed,” assures Ms. Plante’s press secretary, Catherine Cadotte.
The Vienna restaurant where the well-watered dinner took place last April. undflora.at
This response comes a week after the start of our revelations on lavish spending by OCPM leaders, including Valérie Plante’s right-hand man, Dominique Ollivier, and at a time when the City is depriving its employees of Christmas parties.
The aim of this mission was to understand the local model of social housing, cited as an example throughout the world. Builders had therefore been invited by the mayor.
Mayor Valérie Plante in Vienna with the president of the Prével Group, Laurence Vincent. In the background, we recognize Laurent Lévesque, general director of UTILE and Véronique Laflamme, spokesperson for FRAPRU. Facebook
In addition to municipal officials, the mayor of Sherbrooke, Évelyne Beaudin, the president of Groupe Prével, Laurence Vincent, the general director of UTILE, Laurent Lévesque, and the spokesperson for the Popular Action Front in Urban Redevelopment (FRAPRU), Véronique Laflamme, were present.
Seven months to repay
For almost seven months, no guest had been asked to reimburse this amount, even though all other travel expenses were their responsibility.
“We didn’t find it abnormal. [que ce soit payé]. It was the mission launch meal,” says UTILE spokesperson Elise Tanguay.
The president of Prével, Laurence Vincent, judges that it was even clear in the invitation made by Mayor Plante on April 6 that this dinner would be offered by the City of Montreal.
“I understand from your questions that the Quebecor Bureau of Investigation team considers that this would be an issue. I therefore undertake to reimburse the CA$149.76 [soit sa part du repas] to the City of Montreal,” asserts Ms. Vincent in a written statement.
She points out that this is a minimal amount compared to the nearly $6,000 she paid out of her own pocket to accompany the mayor to Vienna.
A well-hidden bill
The bill for this dinner was well hidden from the eyes of Montrealers.
It does not appear in any expenditure form of the European mission, neither in that of the mayor nor in that of any other official.
A mission report submitted via access to information even specifies that the City assumed “$0” for external guests.
According to the City, this invoice was not found in these documents, because the requests for access to information related to “meal costs” and not to “the activities included in the scope of the mission”.
It was by examining the credit card statements that we discovered the existence of the meal.
In the spring, the mayor had already been questioned about this trip. Not only was she accompanied by lobbyists that she had hand-picked, but moreover, the mission to Europe, which also took her to London and Paris, had not previously been announced in her public agenda.
The reflex should have been clear
By announcing this reimbursement, the Plante administration is in catch-up mode, judges an expert.
“We’re still playing catch-up. Once something is made public, we try to make up for the behavior by saying that we will reimburse afterwards,” says Danielle Pilette, professor at UQAM specializing in municipal management.
According to Ms. Pilette, the alcohol should have been paid for by the participants, “unless perhaps we had offered a drink.”
“The reflex should be clear. When there are public funds, there should be a lot of moderation,” she continues.
Danielle Pilette ELIZABETH LAPLANTE/QMI AGENCY
The expert was also surprised to know that Valérie Plante had spent more than $1,300 on an upgrade on this same trip in order to make her Montreal-London flight in business class.
Ms. Pilette judges that the mayor had rather accustomed Montrealers to modest travel expenses.
If we compare the expenses of her predecessor, Denis Coderre, Valérie Plante actually spends, on average, almost half as much per year for international missions.
No parties for employees
Several City of Montreal employees will have to put an end to their Christmas party, revealed Monday The Press.
According to the daily, the various services were asked to organize parties “at no cost to the City”, so many units canceled the planned activities.
The reason given is that of the budgetary restrictions of nearly $115 million, announced by the president of the executive committee, Dominique Ollivier, last October.
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