OUR VIEW: Democratic Race Good for Cities

It’s official, the race is on between Montreal and Vancouver. And that’s good news for all citizens and our democracy.

Earlier this June, Think City board chair Neil Monckton told 1,000 delegates at the fifth Montreal Citizens’ Summit that by 2012 Vancouver, under Mayor Gregor Robertson, was poised to become Canada’s most democratic city. Fellow panelist and Mayor of Montreal, Gerald Tremblay, offered a very different view. It was great that Vancouver was trying to play catch up, said Montreal’s mayor, but his city was the leader on all things democratic, and Montreal would stay on top.

Friendly banter notwithstanding, Montreal’s democratic leadership is a claim that Tremblay can readily defend given the significant democratic reforms he has overseen during his two terms as mayor of Canada’s second largest city. Montreal’s council has not only talked the talk, it has also walked the walk since 2001. When you look at his city’s accomplishments, Mayor Tremblay is quite right. Vancouver has a lot of catching up to do.

Under Tremblay’s leadership, Montreal now has an independent and permanent democracy task force lead by a prominent community activist. It elects neighbourhood councils to administer major annual operating and capital budgets. There is an office of public consultation for all major civic projects, an independent ombudsman to investigate citizen complaints, and even a participatory capital budget in the neighbourhood of Plateau-Mont Royal.

However, the most substantial democratic tool that Tremblay is proud to trumpet is the Montreal Citizens’ Charter that was brought into effect three years ago. The charter has become the centrepiece of Montreal’s democratic reforms and has been copied all over the world since it earned the spotlight at the United Nations World Urban Forum held in Vancouver in June 2006. For Tremblay, the charter was essential for building a future rooted in the qualities valued by all citizens and his city council – openness, respect, solidarity, transparency, and democracy.

A strong claim from Mayor Tremblay, but one that is also echoed by those outside city hall’s power structures. Dimitri Roussopoulos, an independent community activist and the chair of Montreal’s democracy task force believes the most important contribution the charter has made to civic life is how it defines city hall’s relationship to citizens. The charter clearly spells out the city’s obligations to citizens and vice versa, laying them out in a concrete fashion. Moreover, if citizens have an issue or concern with their rights, it provides the public with a very clear path of recourse through the office of the ombudsman.

Later this summer, the charter may be further strengthened when Tremblay’s council votes on giving citizens the right to put issues on the municipal ballot through an initiative process. If the charter’s initiative mechanism is approved, the mayor and his democracy task force chair know that this will put citizens on a more level playing field with elected officials and city staff.

In the race for the title of Canada’s most democratic city, Montreal is the clear frontrunner among the big eight cities. And Tremblay is dead right. If Vancouver wants to get into the game, Mayor Robertson must move forward with his promises to reform local democracy in Vancouver. A citizens' charter is an excellent place to start.

Think City has supported such an initiative since 2005 and would very much like to see council adopt a made-in-Vancouver version of the Montreal charter. More importantly, the process of developing the charter would lay a solid foundation for implementing the mayor’s other promised reforms.

Since its election last November, Vancouver’s new council has been consumed with all things Olympic. However, last fall, the mayor as candidate committed to a number of democratic changes.

Mayor Robertson said he would create a citizens engagement unit that would see staff reassigned to lead and coordinate public consultation for major public initiatives, including Listening to Vancouver, an annual series of consultations and workshops where the public can share ideas, and guide the government. The unit would also provide recommendations to improve civic participation city-wide, including a strategy to increase the involvement of multi-cultural communities, refugees, and non-citizens in the democratic process.

The mayor also promised to press the BC government on establishing campaign finance limits for the 2011 municipal election. Mayor Robertson also committed his administration to studying reforms to the at-large system with specific emphasis on boosting neighbourhood-based representation, and putting these changes to plebiscite in the 2011 municipal election.

In addition to these reforms, the mayor also pledged his strong support for the following five democratic reform options that Think City developed with citizens and community groups as part of the year-long Dream Vancouver project leading up to the November 2008 elections:

1. The city should replace the at-large system with another electoral system (e.g., wards, proportional representation).
2. The city should provide more funding and other resources to foster citizen-directed activities in neighbourhoods (e.g., area councils, childcare/seniors care, community gardens, etc.).
3. The city should establish an independent office of public consultation to ensure all city consultation processes are transparent, credible and effective.
4. The city should provide citizens with direct ways to set city council priorities between elections (e.g., ongoing democratic reform through a citizens’ assembly or annual/capital budget development through participatory budgeting).
5. The city should create a public engagement strategy for multicultural communities.

If the city acts on Think City’s Dream Vancouver options above, along with the policies outlined in the Vision Vancouver platform, then we will see a dramatic shift in the democratic life of the city by 2012. However, time is ticking on Mayor Robertson’s mandate and so far not a single public action has been taken on any of these sweeping changes.

But there are signs that city hall is making moves on the democratic agenda at last. Vision Vancouver councillor Andrea Reimer is taking a lead role on these initiatives and has told Think City she is asking her fellow councillors to consider developing a citizens' charter for Vancouver.

But as Montreal’s Mayor Tremblay knows, reforming democratic life in his city has taken his administration eight years and the considerable combined efforts of elected officials, staff and citizens. Vancouver is no different – change won’t happen unless our mayor makes his democratic agenda a priority and soon.

It’s time to get moving, Mayor Robertson. You don’t want to lose the race.

Neil Monckton's complete speech to the Montreal Citizens' Summit is available here.