montreal stuck with overpriced $12.8-million design contract for frozen camillien-houde project, union says
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with montreal’s $88.9-million plan to redesign camillien-houde way now on ice, questions are being raised about a $12.8-million contract that the plante administration awarded in march to carry out the engineering and design work for the project.
the six-year municipal contract signed with engineering firm cima+ and partner lemay, an architecture firm, remains intact, a spokesperson for projet montréal confirmed last week following party leader luc rabouin’s announcement that he would modify and postpone the project to remove cars from camillien-houde if elected mayor of montreal this november.
“current contracts will not be affected,” projet montréal spokesperson simon charron said in a written response about the impact of rabouin’s announcement.
the city is not only stuck with an engineering and design contract for a project that’s in limbo, but it’s an expensive contract to boot, says the union representing montreal’s municipal engineers.
the association des scientifiques et ingénieurs de montréal (asim) estimates the value of the contract is double what professional services should cost on a construction project of the same size, said the union’s president, gisella gesuale.
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“it shouldn’t be this high a percentage for external professional services,” gesuale said. “there’s no real explanation why the percentage is much bigger for this project than other projects.”
in 2018, the city awarded a $3.8-million professional service contract for the $48.8-million project to rebuild remembrance rd., the only other artery that allows cars to cross mount royal. the professional service fees represented 7.8 per cent of the construction cost, gesuale noted.
however, for camillien-houde, the $12.8-million professional services contract costs 14.3 per cent of the $88.9-million project.
“so how is it that we were able to award professional services contracts at seven per cent before and in the last couple of years we’re not capable, and we spend twice as much money for professional services contracts?” gesuale said. the union had repeatedly flagged an explosion in the fees being paid by the city to external engineers on various projects.
the professional service fees on a high-priced project like camillien-houde shouldn’t exceed seven per cent, gesuale said.
even the industry association representing consulting engineering firms says as much, she added.
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according to its 2025 fee scale, the association des firmes de génie-conseil du québec (afg) calls for professional fees of $1.28 million on the first $20 million value of infrastructure projects like new roads, plus 5.4 per cent on the remaining project value above $20 million.
applying the industry association’s fee scale, the professional service fees on the $88.9-million camillien-houde project should cost just over $5 million, not $12.8 million, gesuale said.
the union also contends that cima+ had an inside track on the camillien-houde contract because it also produced the preliminary design study for the project under a $1.1-million contract from montreal.
the cima+ study was not provided to the other bidders vying for the engineering and design contract. in fact, one of the companies competing for the contract asked the city during the tendering process if it would be possible for all of the bidders to see it. the city refused, saying: “no, the preliminary design plans for phase 1 will not be shared as part of this call for tenders.” the exchange was published in a document on the quebec electronic tendering website.
cima+/lemay won the contract with a score that was less than 0.1 per cent higher than the second-place bidder. a city selection committee evaluated the bids on qualitative criteria, including experience and proposed methodology to carry out the contract, as well as price.
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cima+/lemay’s bid price was the third highest of the five bidders, but the team won based on the qualitative criteria.
the city says it can’t prevent any firm from bidding on a public call for tenders.
“nothing prevents a firm that has produced a preliminary study on a given project from later submitting a bid in a public call for tenders related to that same project,” city spokesperson hugo bourgoin said in an email. in fact, quebec’s cities and towns act prevents a municipality from excluding a firm in such a situation, he said.
nevertheless, montreal examines such situations on a case-by-case basis to determine whether a bidder that conducted the preliminary study on a project is being conferred an undue advantage in bidding on the subsequent contract, bourgoin said.
montreal’s comptroller general carried out the audit of the camillien-houde engineering and design contract, he added.
“in this case, the comptroller general concluded that cima+ did not enjoy an unfair advantage over other bidders,” bourgoin said. the information contained in the preliminary design study was not required for the preparation of a bid, he added.
however, the montreal inspector general’s office explained in a 2014 report that montreal allows firms that have conducted a preliminary study to participate in the subsequent tendering process “provided that the preliminary study is published to allow other bidders access to the same information.”
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cima+’s preliminary study still hasn’t been made public.
“given that the technical teams are currently conducting final reviews of the preliminary design study and its technical annexes,” bourgoin said, “these documents cannot be made public.”
the contract to cima+ and lemay calls for “preliminary design studies and the design of plans and specifications” for the construction work on the camillien-houde project. the civil service report on the contract doesn’t indicate how these other preliminary design studies differ from cima+’s previous contract for a preliminary design study.
mayoral rival soraya martinez ferrada, who leads ensemble montréal party, has already pledged to “go back to the drawing board” with the camillien-houde plan if she’s elected on nov. 2, saying she’ll heed the wish of a majority of montrealers to not ban cars but improve safety for all users.
martinez ferrada also blasted mayor valérie plante and her projet montréal administration in march for making what she called a “very odd” choice to award the $12.8-million contract to produce plans and specifications for the redevelopment of camillien-houde when plante was at the end of her mandate and had done little up till then to make the mountain safer.
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asked whether she would cancel the $12.8-million contract if elected, martinez ferrada said through a spokesperson that’s not clear yet.
“all options are on the table,” spokesperson félix lacerte-gauthier said. “our priority is to ensure sound management of public finances.”
the city did not respond by the gazette’s publication deadline about the contract’s penalty clauses for cancellation.
the first phase of the project was to be carried out from 2026 to 2027 with the remineralizing of some of the asphalted parking lots near smith house and beaver lake. the second phase, involving the complete reconstruction of camillien-houde, was to begin right after the first phase.
however, plante declared in late august that the camillien-houde project will be postponed due to construction work that just closed docteur-penfield ave. for eight years. rabouin, who made his announcement a few days later, has made the camillien-houde project conditional on adding a shuttle bus service on the route.
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