Our Team

Andrée Cossette

CPA auditor

Auditor general

Ms. Andrée Cossette began her mandate as acting general auditor of the City of Montréal on September 19, 2023. Holder of a bachelor’s degree in business administration (accounting sciences) from the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières, Ms. Cossette has extensive experience in control, management and strategic planning. In fact, over the last twelve years, she has held the position of general auditor of the City of Sherbrooke and previously of the City of Trois-Rivières. She also worked for nearly twenty-five years within an international company, notably as head of procurement and finance.

Ms. Cossette is a member of the Ordre des CPA du Québec as a CPA auditor. Let us also mention that she was among the finalists for the Prix Femmes d’affaires du Québec in 2015.

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.