Municipal Food policy councils (FPC) are emerging across Canada. They are innovative governance models that fill an institutional gap by activating policy and engagement at the municipal level. Territorial, or city-region, food systems are the systems of innovation, which combine the goals of quality, health, ecology, fairness and participative democracy. Multi-level and cross-sectorial partnerships can help re-adjust the institutional context to enable, facilitate and champion the emergence of social innovations carried by civic food networks (CFNs). The process of creating an FPC opens a window on the food politics of a place, its actors, and history. This thesis illustrates some of the challenges city-regions may face by providing an in-depth case study of Montreal, Quebec. This thesis explores the influence of the provincial “neoliberal turn” on food planners and CFNs since early 2000. I highlight how neoliberalism has interacted with the institutional legacy of the "Quebec model". In turn, I follow the social formation of groups and coalitions that shape the regional policy networks from 1986 to 2016 and their interactions with public sector organizations. This work adopts a multi-method approach to analyze the negotiations and arrangements within the 2014-2016 Montreal Food Systems Action Plan. Specifically, this thesis uses an assessment tool built on the premises of Actor-Network Theory to evaluate whether the action plan meets the conditions for an effective partnership. I identify the territorial, technical and political dynamic inside and outside this hybrid public sector-civil society partnership to explain its eventual transition into a municipally mandated Food policy council.