Urban agriculture group to launch petition for public consultations in Montreal

“For the first time, citizens are taking power away from the politicians”

By Linda Gyulai
The Gazette
Aug 16, 2011

Excerpt:

MONTREAL – A group of Montrealers is about to test the public’s newly bestowed right to initiate public consultations in the city.

The threshold is high, though.

The Work Group on Urban Agriculture, composed of university and community groups, will have to collect 15,000 signatures on a paper petition by Nov. 8 to oblige the city to hold a public consultation on the state of urban agriculture in Montreal.

City council passed a bylaw in January 2010 introducing citizen-initiated public consultations on any subject in the municipal realm, but it has so far gone unused.

The right of initiative allows members of the public for the first time to pick a topic that makes it onto the political agenda. The city executive committee, the top decision-making body at city hall, has decided all city-level matters that are sent for public consultation until now.

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