City of Montreal to review trash collection after report reveals scandal

The City of Montreal promises to correct a situation brought forward by an administrative investigation that found a garbage collection company has been dumping other towns’ trash in the Verdun and Sud-Ouest boroughs.

Jean-François Parenteau, Mayor of Verdun, said in a release that the findings in the Inspector General of Montreal’s report are unacceptable. Parenteau says that Verdun has launched its own investigation.

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The report claimed that garbage was transported from other municipalities on Montreal’s South Shore, one of which is run by Mayor Benoît Dorais, who also serves as chairman of the Executive Committee for the City of Montreal.

The contracts between the two boroughs and the suspected collection supplier have been terminated.

Parenteau says that the city has to make sure that residents of Verdun and the Sud-Ouest will not be footing the bill for the faulty service.

According to the Journal de Montreal, the value of both contracts was estimated at over $35 million.

The Journal de Montreal also reports that the Inspector General of Montreal is considering to bring the report to the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) and Quebec’s anti-corruption squad (UPAC).

Parenteau, who also reports to the Executive Committee of Citizen Services, Sustainable Development, Supply and the Environment, said, “This is a study of technological options that would allow the city to better monitor and supervise the collection, transportation and the elimination of garbage and residual matters.”

Parenteau added that the two boroughs have already changed their process to ensure that the situation does not happen again.

— with files from La Presse Canadienne