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IPAM to participate in the World Urban Forum in Rio de Janeiro

Montréal, March 10, 2010 – Phyllis Lambert, on behalf of IPAM’s executive committee, is delighted to announce that the organization will participate in the fifth World Urban Forum, to be held from March 22 to 26, 2010 in Rio de Janeiro, under the aegis of UN-HABITAT (the United Nations Human Settlements Programme).1

At the invitation of Québec’s Department of International Affairs, IPAM has designated two directors, Dimitri Roussopoulos and Anne Latendresse, to join the Canadian and Québec delegation, which is to have more than 150 members. This major event is expected to attract thousands of delegates fromevery continent, from politics, academia and non-governmental organizations. The World Urban Forum is accompanied by a parallel forum, the Urban Social Forum, organized by social movements.2

Phyllis Lambert, IPAM’s president of IPAM, believes the Institute’s participation in the World Urban Forum will be closely linked to its mission of furthering education on urban issues. “In order to help Greater Montréal benefit from IPAM’s participation in the World Urban Forum, we plan to host a roundtable a few weeks after the event. Such a public roundtable will provide us with new ideas drawn from the Rio events that will help Montréal progress.

According to Dimitri Roussopoulos, the Forum is a key event for IPAM. “At the dawn of the 21st century, for the first time more people live in cities than in the countryside. Thus the Forum’s theme is particularly apt: The Right to the City: Bridging the Urban Divide.”

Anne Latendresse also stresses the event’s relevance. “IPAM will have the opportunity to strengthen existing ties and build partnerships with organizations that share a similar mission, including IPUR (the Institute of Urban and Regional Planning at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) and the Polis Institute,3 in São Paulo, Brazil’s pre-eminent urban and social policy institute.”

IPAM is an urban think tank resulting from a citizens’ initiative, which brings together experts fromMontréal’s universities, community organizations, and from civil society in general. It is devoted to research, education and public policy development on an independent, non-partisan and non-profit basis. Its mission is to contribute to innovative urban planning, economic and sustainable development, citizenship and democracy through a multidisciplinary and multiscaled approach and to promote a city based on social justice and solidarity.

1 See http://www.unhabitat.org/categories.asp?catid=584
2 See http://hicwuf.hic-net.org/?page_id=32
3 See http://www.polis.org.br/

Phyllis Lambert, architect, is Founding Director and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) of Montréal.
Dimitri Roussopoulos is a writer, a political economist and community activist as well as President of the City of Montréal’s task force on democracy and Founding President of the Urban Ecology Centre of Montréal.
Anne Latendresse is professor of Geography at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and Associate Director of the Centre for Enquiries and Research on Brazil (CERB).


Press review of the IPAM launch

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Launch of the Institut
de politiques alternatives de Montréal


A think tank is created to shed light on urban planning and development policy in Montréal.

Montréal, 14 October 2009 — Phyllis Lambert, architect, Founding Director and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the CCA, Dimitri Roussopoulos, founder of the Montréal Urban Ecology Centre, and Dinu Bumbaru, Policy Director of Héritage Montréal, announced today the creation of a think tank, the Institut de politiques alternatives de Montréal (IPAM). This citizens’ initiative seeks to contribute to viable urban planning in Montréal, to its economic and sustainable development, and local democracy. As an independent and multidisciplinary organisation, IPAM has been formed to play a key role over the long term in the municipal debate on policy choices leading to an equitable and prosperous society.

The economic, social and ecological challenges to urban development require an open-minded dialogue accessible to all sectors of Montréal society. IPAM is created as a think tank, a research centre, and an open public forum where different publics can meet, exchange ideas, and debate. It will act to provide a way for civil society to contribute its own innovative solutions alongside those of municipal bodies to help shape Montréal’s long-term future.

“The considerable impact of economic development in the City of Montréal and the megaprojects it has proposed, clearly indicate that we are currently at a major crossroad,” said Phyllis Lambert. “The establishment of IPAM is essential: for it is clear that everyone that makes up the city’s civil society must understand and agree on a definition and parameters of city planning, and they must share a clear vision of their rightful place in a permanent, constructive, democratic and effective dialogue with political decision-makers.”

An independent, multidisciplinary, and inclusive organisation, IPAM’s purpose is to play a key role in the municipal debate on policy choices leading to an equitable and prosperous society. IPAM’s intention is to contribute the expertise of individuals from different spheres within the community.

“By combining the strengths and expertise of a wide range of specialists in complementary fields of activity both locally and from elsewhere, including university research, business, socioeconomics, neighbourhood roundtables, ethnic communities, and environmental NGOs, we will create a centre of reference composed of people who will mobilise around issue of sociology, economy, democracy and physical planning related to urban development and recommend courses of action for the municipal administration in each of these areas,” added Dimitri Roussopoulos.

According to Dinu Bumbaru, “With the City about to update the Urban Master Plan, Montreal needs a framework that integrates urban planning, economic planning and sustainable development, which is why IPAM will establish six working groups to tackle questions of long-term economic and cultural development: heritage, poverty, social housing and social justice, ecology, urban planning and transportation, and democracy.”

IPAM’s work will concentrate on the following two activities:

As a first initiative IPAM will, the day after the elections, call on the new City Administration to hold a citizens’ summit on the future of Montréal in partnership with civil society, permitting an exchange of ideas and experience, in order to help to establish the guidelines for the administration`s new mandate.

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Media contacts

Louise Constantin
IPAM
P 514-769-4553

Isabelle Huiban, Press Relations
Office of Phyllis Lambert
P 514 222-4307

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