MONTREAL, Sept. 24, 2012 /CNW Telbec/ - The Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) began operations in September 2002. Created under the Charter of the new Ville de Montréal, the OCPM held its first consultations in the fall of 2002, with the very first being held on October 22 in the borough of Saint-Laurent. Since then, more than 100 consultations have been organized, bringing together some 25,000 citizens who have asked thousands of questions and filed more than 2000 briefs.
The consultations have been held at the four corners of Montréal, and have addressed a wide variety of subjects, including local real estate projects, major institutional complexes, the future of Mount Royal, and Montréal's sectional policies. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of flyers have been distributed to inform citizens, millions of pages have been visited on the Office Web site, and countless means have been employed to reach and inform citizens.
Throughout those years, the OCPM has played a major role as a credible third party acting transparently and effectively in examining the projects entrusted to it. The goal of the Office has always been to allow the greatest freedom of expression to the greatest number of people, in order to provide elected officials with an accurate portrait of popular opinion, while making recommendations aimed at increasing the social acceptability of the projects under consideration.
To mark this important milestone, the Office will organize a number of activities this fall. There will be a reflection seminar in October, an exhibition in the hall of honour at City Hall in the second half of November, and a series of publications addressed to the general public or the various communities participating in the consultations. A first publication was released in the Metro newspaper this morning: an anniversary journal, with a retrospective of our 10 years of public consultations with Montrealers. A web version is available at www.journalmetro.com/ocpm
We invite all Montrealers to join us by posting a comment about the OCPM on our Web site, www.ocpm.qc.ca, and by following the activities marking this anniversary on our Web site, or on Twitter or Facebook.
SOURCE: OFFICE DE CONSULTATION PUBLIQUE DE MONTREAL
Luc Doray
514 872-3568
514 977-8365 (Cell.)
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