The corrections made by the City of Lachute following an audit of the process governing the adoption of municipal by-laws and carried out in 2020 were deemed satisfactory by the Quebec Municipal Commission (CMQ), in a follow-up report published more early this month. The CMQ announces that it will not have to do any additional follow-up in this matter.
In June 2020, the CMQ announced audit work in 28 municipalities with 10,000 to 100,000 inhabitants, including Lachute, concerning the process governing the adoption of municipal by-laws. It is the process of adoption of 83 municipal regulations by the Lachute municipal council, between May 1, 2018 and December 31, 2019, which was put under the microscope of the CMQ.
In the report published in December 2020, the Commission noted two elements of non-compliance for the City of Lachute, namely one concerning the adoption of the regulation on the treatment of municipal elected officials and another concerning the publication of a regulation urban planning. A recommendation was made by the CMQ to correct the situation, namely to “improve the relevant internal controls to ensure compliance with the legislative provisions relating to the process of adopting regulations”.
In the monitoring report published on June 20, the CMQ confirms that the City of Lachute has made the necessary corrections.
“The initial action plan presented by the City was appreciated by the Vice-Presidency for Verification,” we can read. At that time, it appeared plausible that the main deficiencies would be corrected or in the process of being corrected and that the recommendation made would be implemented within the allotted time. […] Consequently, the vice-presidency of audit will not carry out any additional follow-up since the City has satisfactorily implemented the recommendation made. »
The mayor of Lachute Bernard Bigras-Denis, who took office in 2021, i.e. after the period audited in the initial report, did not fail to point out that not all municipalities had been the subject of the audit in 2020 which complied 100% with the recommendation.
“We are very happy, especially because it was done internally,” he said. “It was the employees of the registry and general administration who focused on this and who redid the entire organizational chart of internal processes. It was done in a very professional manner in a very limited time frame, in less than a year.”
The follow-up report will be tabled at the next public meeting of the Lachutois municipal council, on July 3. It can be viewed on the CMQ website at www.cmq.gouv.qc.ca, in the “Published Reports” section under the “Municipal Audit” tab.
