Montrealers need to appreciate their city more and realize they are “the envy of many,” says the outgoing boss of the borough’s 28,000 municipal employees.
Serge Lamontagne is bowing out these days after six years as general manager of the City of Montreal. Longevity record since 2002 municipal merger.
“It’s a beautiful, safe city, it’s a beautiful metropolis. And I wish we could talk about it like that,” Mr. Montreal said earlier this summer. Pres. “We envy a lot of people. People want to come. »
Photo by Charles William Pelletier, special collaboration
Serge Lamontagne at Esplanade Tranquil in Montreal
The self-described “pure and die-hard Montrealer” was chosen as the first civil servant by Valerie Plante during her first months at City Hall. He offered to go with him twice, but he realized in recent months that, at age 66 and after a career spanning more than 35 years, it was time to retire. The official start of this new chapter: 1R August. His replacement, Benoit Dagenais, has been in the saddle for several weeks.
“There was a breakthrough,” he recounted, arguing that the mandate’s main directions had been taken and would be “still in preparation” next year.
The engine is gone. It’s time for me to step aside. If not now, then never.
Serge LaMontagne, Director General of the City of Montreal
There is no question of gradual departure in this type of work. “I’ll never see a job as intense as that. There are days, I go from a cultural file to the homeless, to the police, to the firemen. And going to the general manager is often the problems,” he said. Faced with the enormous administrative machinery of the city of Montreal, “we have to be strong”.
“It’s Coming to Get Me”
On his smartphone, Serge LaMontagne shows a video of Bryant Park captured in 2014 while visiting New York with one of his sons. An urban park of relatively modest dimensions, inserted in the heart of a dense neighborhood. Public ice rink.
“I told my guy: We’re going to get this town,” he recalled.
Montreal’s version of Bryant Park is on the Esplanade Tranquil, in the Quartier des Glasses. It was here that he arranged to meet the outgoing Director General Pres. “I have already worked in this project as Deputy Director General in 2011-2012,” he argued. It needs time to happen,” he said. The campus finally opened in August 2021.
Photo by Charles William Pelletier, special collaboration
Tranquil Esplanade, which opened in 2021, hosts events throughout the year.
Behind him, off the Tranquille Esplanade, we find the Center des Memories Montrealises (MEM), a history museum that opened a few years late last September. All located at the corner of Saint-Catherine Street and Saint-Laurent Boulevard, the hot spot of the social crisis currently rocking Montreal’s streets.
Serge Lamontagne says this kind of bad news makes headlines, but defends the way Montreal operates.
Unfortunately, we too often generalize about executive dysfunction. And then this, yeah, it’s coming to get me.
Serge LaMontagne, Director General of the City of Montreal
For example, the Office de Consultation publique de Montreal (OCPM) expense scandal, “We looked at it, we’re going to fix it, but that’s not to say the city is poorly managed”.
The manager oversaw other troubling situations: Serge Lamontagne led Laval’s management apparatus between 2010 and 2013 after Gilles Vaillancourt left after witnessing repeated scandals at Montreal City Hall.
Photo by Robert Skinner, Law Press Archives
Serge Lamontagne was general manager at Laval from 2013 to 2018. At right, former Laval Mayor Marc Demers.
“The government asked me to go and restructure,” he said. “I have experienced all the major ethical and restructuring crises. »
“One Big Step”
The new retiree has no specific retirement plans beyond a month-long trip to Europe this summer. He readily admits that his values are close to those of the Plant administration, but completely rules out the possibility of running for politics in the November 2025 election.
I will work for causes, but not politics. I am not comfortable in public and I am not a politician.
Serge LaMontagne, Director General of the City of Montreal
After all, he devotes more time to his children and grandchildren. Notably Henry, “almost 5 years old,” has been featured in his emails to thousands of city employees over the years.
“You saw him grow up with my Friday words,” the general manager wrote in his last message in early June. “We are both preparing to take a big step in our lives. For him the beginning of school and for me, the joy of retirement and devoting myself fully to my children and grandchildren. »
“Urban by nature”, Serge Lamontagne leaves the city, but does not leave the city.
“Music geek. Coffee lover. Devoted food scholar. Web buff. Passionate internet guru.”
