Our Team

Michèle Galipeau

FCPA auditor

Auditor General, Ville de Montréal

Mrs. Michèle Galipeau began her mandate as Auditor General of the Ville de Montréal on August 16, 2016. The mandate is for a term of 7 years and is non-renewable. She also held the position of Auditor General of the Ville de Laval from 2012 to 2016. Between 1988 and 2011, she worked for a variety of major companies in the financial sector, including more than 15 years in management positions. She served as budgets and systems director, comptroller and assistant Vice-President, internal audits, for more than 10 years. Previously, she worked in financial auditing for a large accounting firm and taught at the École des hautes études commerciales de Montréal (HEC Montréal) for a number of years. A chartered professional accountant, she holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) from the École des hautes études commerciales de Montréal (HEC Montréal). She is a member of the Association des vérificateurs généraux municipaux du Québec (AVGMQ) and sits on the board of directors of the Canadian Audit and Accountability Foundation (CAAF), and on CPA Canada’s Public Sector Accounting Board (PSAB).

François Arbez

CISA, CISSP, CISM, CGEIT

Assistant Auditor General

Mr. François Arbez has more than 25 years of experience in Information Technology (IT), including almost 20 years in IT auditing. Since joining the Bureau du vérificateur général de la Ville de Montréal in 2010, he has contributed to the completion of IT audits, while integrating best audit practices based on risks. He was named Assistant Auditor General, Audit Department Information Technology, at the BVG in 2018. Prior to joining the BVG team, he was an IT audit consultant and worked as an IT auditor and information security consultant for one of the large international accounting firms. In this role, he lent his expertise to several major Québec and Canadian organizations in both the private and public sectors. He also worked on the internal auditing of information technologies for a major Canadian banking institution.

France Lessard

CPA auditor

Assistant Auditor General

Mrs. France Lessard joined the Bureau du vérificateur général de la Ville de Montréal as Assistant Auditor General in December 2016. Since then, she has been involved in financial audits of the Ville de Montréal and of all the agencies included in the reporting entity for which the BVG acts as an auditor. She has more than 30 years of experience in financial auditing. She worked more than 27 years for a major accounting firm, nearly 10 years of which as an associate. Over the course of her career, she has worked in financial auditing mainly for public sector agencies in the municipal health and social services field, municipal and private retirement funds, state-owned companies, mutual funds, and not-for-profit organizations. France Lessard is also a member of the sectoral working group for municipal administrations and sits on the sectoral working group of the health and social services network of the Ordre des CPA du Québec (OCPAQ). She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and a certificate in real estate business from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). She is a member of the Ordre des CPA du Québec, as a CPA auditor.

Gontran Bage

Eng., PhD

Assistant Auditor General

Mr. Gontran Bage has more than 20 years of experience in a variety of posts, where he managed multidisciplinary teams of various sizes. Prior to joining the Bureau du vérificateur général de la Ville de Montréal in October 2018 as Senior Auditor, Audit Department Performance and Compliance, he held the position of director of internal audits, sustainable development and greenhouse gases, for a major accounting firm, as well as different posts in various consulting firms. Mr. Bage has a broad range of auditing expertise in the public sector, engineering, and sustainable development. He holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the École Polytechnique de Montréal. In June 2010, he received the Prix hommage de la Présidente from the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec, in the under-35 category, for his commitment and contribution to promoting the engineering profession.