Gender parity but little diversity in Valrie Plante's executive committee

During the election campaign, Valrie Plante promised her executive committee would feature gender parity, diversity, and even a place forsome members of the opposition.

But Montreal's newly elected mayor did not hit all those targets in revealing members her 13-personexecutive committee thismorning.

There are seven men and six women, including Plante. There are not, however, anyvisible minorities.

"It's a shortcoming, clearly, the [lack]of cultural diversity, in the city council in general," Plante said, pointing out that whilevisible minorities make up 30 per centof the Montreal population, that number is not reflected in the city council.

Of the 65 members,only four are members of visible minority communities. Plantesaid while there are people on the council who come from diverse backgrounds, racialized communities are not represented.

"My commitment is to make sure that in the coming years, within the structures that I have some power over, my own party, our staff, and even the city, we need to do better."

Plantehad already indicated that Southwest borough mayorBenoitDoraiswill chairthecommittee.

Only onemember of the opposition was named Verdun borough mayorJean-FranoisParenteau, whois responsible for the citizen services file.

Parenteau ran withquipeDenisCoderre. According to Radio-Canada, hewas told he had to leave the party and sit as independent in order to obtain a position on the committee.

Plantedenied those were conditions for getting a place on the committee, saying opposition members were given the choice to either recuse themselves from their party's caucus or sit as an independent.

Parenteau wasn't the only member of the opposition who was approached to join the committee. Plante said some people didn't want to leave their party caucus or sit as independents, and others didn't want the positions they were offered.

The team also includes five associatecouncillorswho will assist the members of the committee in various files. Plantesaid it is possible there will be more people named to those positions in the future.

• ValriePlantesworn in as mayor of Montreal

Here's the full list of the executive committee members and the associates:

• Valrie Plante, mayor.
• Benoit Dorais, chair.
• Magda Popeanu, vice-chair responsible for housing, real estate planning and management and diversity.
• Sylvain Ouellet, vice-chairresponsible for water and water infrastructuremanagement, infrastructure and electrical services.
• ric Alan Caldwell, responsible for urban planning, transit andfiles related to the Office de consultationpublique deMontral.
• Christine Gosselin, responsible for heritage, culture and design.
• Luc Ferrandez, responsible for large parks, sustainable development and green space.
• Nathalie Goulet, responsible for public security.
• Robert Beaudry, responsible for economic and commercial development and intergovernmental affairs.
• Rosannie Filato, responsible for social and community development, homeless, youth, sports and leisure.
• Franois William Croteau, responsible for smart city, information technology and innovation.
• Laurence Lavigne Lalonde, responsible for transparency, democracy, governance, citizen life and Espace pour la vie.
• Jean-Franois Parenteau, responsible for environment and citizen services.

The five associate councillors are:

• Sophie Mauzerolle, who will assist Plante directly.
• Alex Norris, who will assist with the public security file.
• Marianne Gigure, who will assist with the active transit file.
• Craig Sauv, who will assist with the mobility and citizen services files.
• Suzie Miron, who will assist with the infrastructurefile.

Opposition unimpressed

Plantesaid in choosing her executive committee, she tried to strikea balance between choosing people with experience and makingsure the different boroughs are well-represented.

PlanteandDoraissay they are trying to change the way the executive committee works.

Variousfiles will be grouped into trios, meaningthree members will worktogether with the goalsof being better organized, making sure more information is shared amongthemand having elected councillors with experience offer support torookies.

quipeDenisCoderreinterim leader Lionel Perez criticized the idea of having the members work in threes, saying that, for example, if three people are attending meetings regardingthree different files, they will end up being in meetings all the time and will never get anything done.

He said six members of his party, including two who are visible minorities,were approached with an offer to sit on the executive committee but refused because they were told they would have to eventually leave their party.

The fact that there are so few opposition councillorson the committee, Perez said, amounts to a missed opportunity and a broken promise to electors.

"She saidshe wanted to reduce and put aside partisanship. She failed from the get-go," he said.

Perez said the result is thatpeople who have never been in politics have important files, andthose who have knowledge about important files are being relegated to lesser roles.

No new borough mayors

There are no newly elected boroughmayors on the committee.Plantesaid she wanted to make sure those 11 people could focus on their responsibilities at the borough level.

Some new mayors said they didn't want an executive committeeposition, such as the mayor ofCte-des-NeigesNotre-Dame-de-Grce,SueMontgomery.

"It interests mebut not right now,"Montgomery said last Thursday.

The committeeis expected tohave its first meeting Wednesday morning.