What is Montreal like?
Posted at 7:00 p.m.
Well, summarizes Valérie Plante, but not so much.
Since his re-election as mayor of the metropolis in November 2021, one crisis has not waited for another. The politician agreed during a long interview with the La Presse team on Thursday during her mid-term review.
Homelessness has exploded throughout downtown, as has the number of vacant office towers.
There is this (still ongoing) confrontation around the funding of public transport.
This poor record in social housing.
This series of worrying climatic events repeatedly causes the city’s sewers to overflow.
Without forgetting inflation, which is straining the city’s finances (and causing Montrealers’ property tax bills to skyrocket).
In Montreal, crises follow each other and overlap. But our meeting with Valérie Plante also shows a growing divide between her government and the government of François Legault.
The mayor points to Quebec’s decision to increase tuition fees for students from other provinces who will attend McGill and Concordia universities. She expects “significant impacts” and regrets this.
In recent years there have been several decisions and decisions taken by the current government that have a negative impact on the metropolitan region. That’s a bit like my observation.
Valérie Plante, Mayor of Montreal
The conflict of visions is particularly clear when it comes to the topic of public transport.
The province’s major cities, particularly the metropolis, have been demanding for months that Quebec invest more to make up for deficits and improve services.
The mayor says she made “an offer” to Transport and Sustainable Mobility Minister Geneviève Guilbault last May. “We were more in a mode of openness: ‘Maybe we could pay more for the cities.'” »
But there has been “radio silence” from the minister since May, says Plante. Until Ms. Guilbault returned in mid-October with a proposal that the cities considered scandalous. Proposal that would reduce Quebec’s participation in funding and, depending on the city, result in significant service losses for users.
“At the moment we really have our backs against the wall,” says Valérie Plante. We do not understand what is happening with the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, because to reach an agreement we have to talk, we have to chat. This is not a negotiation, we have always been partners. »
Cracks are also beginning to appear within the Metropolitan Community of Montreal (CMM), a group of 82 cities led by Valérie Plante.
According to several well-informed sources, several municipalities in Basses-Laurentides and Lanaudière are beginning to question the current method of financing public transport. These cities believe they have to pay more and more to make up for the deficits of Montreal, Longueuil and Laval, while their residents in the suburbs have access to increasingly deplorable services.
Some mayors are even considering leaving the CMM, which would mean resolving an important legislative spaghetti fracas. It’s far from a done deal, but it’s a sign that things are serious.
Valérie Plante says she is well aware of the dissatisfaction.
“I talk to them a lot because it is really important for me as president of the CMM to hear the frustrations, then the problems and then also their solutions,” says Valérie Plante. You are right to be angry. »
We will have to wait and see how Montreal responds to the new “final” funding proposal presented by Minister Guilbault1 on Friday. Clashes are to be expected: Quebec estimates that CMM cities have “unallocated” budget surpluses of more than 800 million, which presumably could be used to cover the transport companies’ deficit.
The numbers war is far from over.
The divide between Quebec and Montreal is also evident in another important issue: housing.
The Plante administration has thrown out all sorts of numbers over the years to defend its record, but the mayor acknowledges that housing starts are clearly inadequate. She acknowledges that Montreal needs to do more to reduce bureaucracy and speed up the issuance of permits2.
But once again she’s throwing the ball to Quebec.
She accuses the CAQ of having invested too little in the first years of its mandate, including in the AccèsLogis program.
I had no success in public housing. The reason is quite simple: I took it for granted that the CAQ [investirait] like all governments of the last 40 years.
Valérie Plante, Mayor of Montreal
Valérie Plante’s comments were received more than coldly in Quebec. According to my sources, anger is at its peak in several companies.
The Legault government is defending its housing record at all costs, rejecting a host of figures and measures it has taken since coming to power. For example, the 7,200 additional “rent supplement programs” it gave poor tenants, or the cities’ new powers on densification.
We have to hope that this guilt ping-pong stops as soon as possible so that the case can be resolved. This is counterproductive in every way.
In that context, the mayor says she is very much looking forward to the November 7 budget update, where Quebec is expected to announce hundreds of additional millions for affordable housing.
Of course, not everything is bleak according to Valérie Plante’s assessment.
She believes Montreal is changing for a better environment. “Street by street, sidewalk by sidewalk, even the parks we develop, the land we appropriate for greening, that is positive.” »
The mayor also highlights the significant decrease in armed violent events in 2023 compared to 2022. She attributes this decline to the success of the “Montreal Model,” which relies on an increased local community presence.
Valérie Plante is also pleased with Quebec’s announcement this week, namely the conclusion of a partnership agreement that will replace the current “fiscal compact” with the cities. The old “very paternalistic” relationship between Quebec and mayors could transform into a more egalitarian relationship, she believes.
“The Quebec government has decided to integrate the priorities that we have been talking about for years, namely climate change, housing and homelessness. That’s good. »
The next two years will be anything but relaxing for Valérie Plante, to say the least. It will increasingly have to defend and justify the city’s spending to taxpayers, who are being squeezed like lemons by inflation.
The nearly $100 million redevelopment of Mount Royal Park and the closure of a road to car traffic remain in the way of part of the electorate, despite the contrary opinion of the Office de Consultation Publique de Montréal (OCPM). One example among others.
No matter: Valérie Plante says she wants to seek a third term. She says she still has “fire” and believes Montreal is “changing for the better.”
Voters will have to judge whether she keeps her word.