Projet Montréal 'isn't setting the example' on car use, opposition charges

Montreal will lease as many as 4,678 cars and trucks for municipal staff during the next two years to supplement the 8,369 vehicles it already owns.

City council voted to award deals worth a combined $10.8 million to vehicle leasing companies La Compagnie de Location d’Autos Enterprise Canada and Location Sauvageau Inc. on Monday night. The amount includes $1.8 million for contingencies.

The two-year deals, which contain a one-year renewal option, are framework agreements that set the prices and terms for the companies to supply cars and trucks to boroughs and central city departments on demand. The city says it will deduct the cost of each short-term rental from the budget of the borough or departments leasing the vehicle.

Projet Montréal councillor Maja Vodanovic, a member of the city executive committee, defended the leasing agreements in council after the opposition charged that the administration of Mayor Valérie Plante isn’t walking the walk when it comes to its goal of reducing car use.

The administration is “waging war” on cars, and specifically on solo-passenger cars, Ensemble Montréal councillor Alan DeSousa said. “Those are laudable goals. (But) besides the nice words, the administration isn’t setting the example.”

While the city has awarded framework agreements to lease vehicles in the past, DeSousa said, the new agreements call for more vehicles to be made available to the city than ever before. Previous contracts called for up to 1,500 vehicles to be supplied on demand, he said.

As well, the city continues to buy vehicles. The city’s online contracts database shows that it issued two contracts in 2021, worth $16.2 million and $6.2 million, to buy electric and hybrid vehicles. Montreal also awarded a $10.8-million contract in 2022 to purchase hybrid vehicles for the police. The city has been playing catch-up on replacing vehicles in its fleet that are beyond their useful life. It forecasts spending $319 million over the next 10 years to replace municipal vehicles other than those of the fire and police departments.

“Between making promises or making commitments for the future, it’s actions that speak,” DeSousa said. “Here, we see the actions of the administration go in the opposite direction of their words.”

Vodanovic said it’s the city’s largest order of leased vehicles because the boroughs used to lease and purchase vehicles on their own. “This time, it’s the centre city that’s making the framework agreement. And it’s for this reason that it’s the largest contract we’ve ever made for leasing, because we’re doing it for the 19 boroughs.”

However, the vehicle fleet has been centralized since 2017.

Vodanovic also contested DeSousa’s claim that the fleet owned by the city has increased by over 1,000 vehicles since the arrival of Projet Montréal.

The reason the fleet appears to be bigger than before, she said, is because in 2022 the city started counting equipment that is added to trucks, such as salt spreaders, snow-blower heads and scrapers, as vehicles in its fleet.

“In 2022, we revised the way that we count our vehicles,” Vodanovic said. “Now we include equipment. … It changes the state of the situation a lot.”

However, the data doesn’t support Vodanovic’s statement to council, because the city’s fleet didn’t increase in 2022. The number of vehicles jumped five years ago.

The Montreal auditor general’s 2019 annual report, which severely criticized the municipal department that manages the fleet, showed the city owned 7,372 vehicles in 2017 and close to 8,700 in 2019. The Plante administration was elected in November 2017.

The presentation by the department, the Service du matériel roulant et des ateliers, at recent budget hearings also showed the increase in the city’s vehicle inventory was between 2017 and 2019 — going from 7,507 vehicles in 2017 to 7,698 in 2018 and to 8,187 vehicles in 2019. The fleet expanded to just over 8,300 vehicles in 2020, and it remained at that level in 2021 and 2022.

The municipal fleet counted 8,369 vehicles as of October 2022, according to data obtained by the Montreal Gazette through an access-to-information request.

The , found the fleet includes 2,313 cars and 1,295 minivans and pickups, and that only 5.9 per cent of the city’s entire fleet is electric or hybrid.

The growth of the city’s vehicle fleet can’t be explained only by snow removal equipment being added to the inventory. The city’s vehicle inventory in 2016 showed Montreal owned 823 compact and sub-compact cars at the time. The number didn’t include police cars. The inventory as of this past October shows the city now owns 1,115 compact and sub-compact cars, not including police cars.

The Montreal Gazette’s examination also found a discrepancy in the number of cars in each borough.

The three boroughs with the most passenger cars are located on métro lines in the city core: Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, Ville-Marie and Plateau-Mont-Royal.

Projet Montréal is in power in nine of the 10 boroughs with the most passenger cars.

Vodanovic disputed the Montreal Gazette’s findings in council, saying there are different variables that explain the discrepancies between the boroughs.

“There are boroughs that do snow clearing on contract, so they don’t have vehicles,” she said. “There are boroughs that do all of the snow clearing internally … so they have more equipment than elsewhere.”

However, the Montreal Gazette’s report only compared the number of cars, SUVs, compact pickups and vans owned by each borough.

Asked to explain the city’s enlarged vehicle fleet since 2017 for the Gazette’s report in early January, Marikym Gaudreault, a spokesperson for Plante and the executive committee, said larger fleets are a trend across the Montreal region.

City council’s contracts committee, which reviewed the contract-awarding process for the leasing deals, said in a report to council that its members asked why the city was leasing vehicles when it continues to replace the thousands of vehicles it owns.

The report says the Service du matériel roulant et des ateliers responded that “rental is important to meet ad hoc and seasonal operational needs.”

Still, the inventory obtained by the Montreal Gazette through access-to-information shows the department owns 167 vehicles that are in reserve, including 28 compact cars, 29 light trucks and 43 heavy-duty trucks.

The leasing deals were submitted to the contracts committee for examination because the lowest bidder offered a price that was 25 per cent below the city’s estimate and 37 per cent below the other bidder.

“According to the resource persons, these discrepancies (in the bids) are explained by the fact that the same prices as last year were used to estimate and that the overall rental cost includes a set of accessories, while the city estimated equipment as an additional charge,” the report says. “The estimate is close to the price submitted by Location Sauvageau Inc. In the circumstances, those responsible have recommended to award this contract.”

Vodanovic told council it’s “extraordinary” that the low bid came in 25 per cent below the city’s estimate.

The contracts committee’s report says it has suggested the city consider including a requirement for electric vehicles the next time it goes to tender to lease vehicles.

lgyulai@postmedia.com

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