City takes over Bonaventure project
Société du havre stripped of its duty
The city of Montreal is taking control of the $200-million reconstruction of the Bonaventure Expressway after having outsourced $18-million in planning studies for the project to the Société du hav re— a publicly funded, private, non-profit agency that was scrutinized by the city’s auditor-general this spring. Christopher Curtis reports.
After outsourcing $19 million in studies for the reconstruction of the Bonaventure Expressway, city hall will take over planning of the massive project starting April 30.
For years, opposition parties demanded that the city wrest control of the $200-million project from the embattled Société du havre de Montréal, a publicly funded, non-profit corporation founded in 2002 with the express purpose of planning and managing the Bonaventure reconstruction.
Its most vocal opponents said the SHM mismanaged millions in taxpayer funds, had no significant oversight and, at one point, harboured a major conflict of interest at the core of its leadership.
Mayor Michael Applebaum announced the move Thursday, citing the need for transparency, “which is both how something is managed and how it appears.”
Critics of the SHM say the move is a major victory for the Bonaventure project, which will overhaul the waterfront highway that links downtown to the Champlain Bridge. Under the guidance of the municipal government, work on the Bonaventure can be streamlined and subject to much more rigorous and open accounting practices, according to Applebaum.
“We always believed the SHM was a recipe for disaster,” said Vision Montreal councillor Véronique Fournier, who closely followed the Bonaventure file for years. “Because it’s a private corporation, it isn’t bound to the same kind of access to information laws as the city. So while I’m not saying there was ever anything criminal happening at the SHM, the ingredients were definitely there.”
The non-profit organization was also widely criticized by Jacques Bergeron, Montreal’s auditor-general, for not issuing annual financial reports and lacking proper oversight. Without a reliable paper trail, Bergeron said it was nearly impossible for taxpayers to know the true cost of the consultations and studies conducted by the SHM.
A 2011 report by The Gazette revealed an apparent conflict of interest within the SHM. While acting as SHM’s project director, Réjean Durocher oversaw the work of Génivar, an engineering firm that had previously employed him. In fact, Durocher was still on Génivar’s payroll while leading the SHM.
“That was a while ago, it was a problem we have since resolved,” a spokesperson for Applebaum said Thursday.
“All I can say is that the SHM’s books are clean, they did great work and now it’s time for us to take over,” Applebaum told The Gazette. “We’re funding this project, so it only makes sense that we oversee it.”
Applebaum had previously addressed one of the Bonaventure project’s major controversies in December when he announced the city would abandon the Dalhousie corridor. The corridor would have seen buses diverted from the expressway onto two small streets that cut through Griffintown and Old Montreal.
The feasibility study behind the Dalhousie corridor cost $3.5 million, public records show.
“That’s money our taxpayers will never see again,” said Catherine Morris, a spokeswoman for Projet Montréal. “It was a plan our party has always opposed and, lo and behold, we were right. Today is a good day; it bodes well for the future, but we can’t forget how badly the previous administration bungled this.”
Because the SHM was created to manage and develop the Bonaventure reconstruction, it’s unclear what the future holds for the non-profit corporation.
Reconstruction of the Bonaventure Expressway is seen as a key element of developing Griffintown, a former industrial neighbourhood undergoing a major transformation. Hundreds of millions in public and private funds will be poured into the downtown neighbourhood over the next decade to build condos, shopping centres, parks and an improved road infrastructure.
“Under its current incarnation, the Bonaventure is exactly what the city needs,” said Pierre Gauthier, a Concordia University urban planning professor. “Instead of an elevated highway that splits neighbourhoods in half, you’ll have an urban boulevard that can accommodate the same amount of traffic. It lets people know they’re in the city the moment they get off the Champlain Bridge. It’s a much softer, more efficient, more modern transition from suburb to city.”
A completion date of the major works surrounding the new highway is tentatively slated for 2014.