A demonstration in favor of maintaining funding for public transport took place in Montreal, attended by dozens of people concerned about cuts in services.
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The rally organized by “Vélorution Montréal” was intended to send a message to the Legault government and denounce its inaction, said the organizer of the Great Demonstration to Save the Buses and the Metro, Mathieu Murphy-Perron.
“I had to react. Such supply interruptions are too important for the population of the Montreal metropolitan region. We had to respond,” he said in an interview on LCN, a few hours before the planned demonstration in downtown Montreal.
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The latter referred to a leak of documents showing that the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) could close the subway at 11 p.m. if the Legault government does not increase its financial contribution to the ARTM.
Although the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility Geneviève Guilbault has improved her offer, Mathieu Murphy-Perron raises two concerns.
“There are still 120 jobs being cut in the STM, that’s not nothing. I also learned that they canceled the STM party, similar to the city of Montreal. “It’s not very, very pleasant for the STM employees,” he says.
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In his opinion, the threat of service cuts hanging over public transport users has no place.
“We know that the vehicle fleet in Montreal is growing, that there is a lack of space and that there is already a lot of traffic congestion. If we let this threat hang in the air, it will impact people’s decisions,” continues Murphy-Perron.
“It is important that governments and the STM say: ❝We will not affect the service, we understand that it is important❞.”