Published at 1:29 am. Updated at 5:00 am.
10,000
Anyone with a pair of eyes will have noticed: there are more and more homeless people and more and more damaged people in Montreal and elsewhere in Quebec. Makeshift camps are increasing. The emergency shelters are overcrowded. The employees of municipal organizations are at the end of their strength. There is a lack of money, as shown by the sad example of Accueil Bonneau, which will soon have to stop distributing meals on weekends… According to the results of a major census, there are currently 10,000 homeless people in the province, and the reality is undoubtedly worse. Heartbreaking.
22 O `clock
PHOTO CHARLES WILLIAM PELLETIER, SPECIAL COLLABORATION ARCHIVE
Crowd at the Jazz Festival last July
Not in my back yard, you say? I wrote in the fall about these citizens who, with full knowledge of the situation, move next to bars and event halls and then increase the number of noise complaints. The contradiction knows no bounds: according to my informants, the residents of the new condominium towers that have been built around the Place des Festivals, in the heart of the Quartier des Spectacles, are also beginning to complain. These advocates of individualism want the free outdoor shows of the Jazz Festival or the Francos, the inflation hedge par excellence for families, to end at 10 p.m. instead of 11 p.m. Arrange a traffic jam or move!
3.2 million
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Ousted president of the Montreal Public Consultation Office Isabelle Beaulieu
This is the Office de Consultation Publique de Montréal's (OCPM) operating budget this year, $200,000 over the established limit. The crazy spending of the OCPM leaders has caused a lot of ink to flow and we will see what will happen to this paracommunal organization in 2024 after its restructuring. What impressed me most, besides the casual management of public funds, is the extreme vulgarity of the deposed president Isabelle Beaulieu. La Presse this week revealed text messages exchanged between Ms Beaulieu and the OCPM's general secretary, Guy Grenier1. “The bastards will have caused damage [sic] in the office,” she wrote about the Quebecor journalists who uncovered the scandal. I'll let you judge who really did the most damage to the organization's reputation.
½
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVE
Inauguration of the REM on July 31st
Half of the 31,000 km of roads maintained by Quebec's transport ministry are in poor condition, according to a damning report from the Auditor General. Worse still, a “significant proportion” of these roads have reached the end of their lifespan. Auditor Guylaine Leclerc criticized the ministry for the inadequacy of its maintenance work, its poor planning and the general lack of clear information about the state of its own network. Luckily there is public transport…
½ (again)
Please forget my last sentence here. It was a difficult year for public transport. Even if, paradoxically, major projects have been inaugurated or finally begun – I'm talking about the first branch of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) and the extension of the blue line of the Montreal metro. Two gigantic shadows cloud the picture: transport companies have been trying all year to convince Minister Geneviève Guilbault to reinvest in their operations (and deficits), and the management of several projects has been in indescribable chaos. Not very encouraging. Meanwhile, Quebec's tram was canceled by the Legault government after gigantic cost overruns. Its fate is uncertain – as is the half-billion dollars already spent on the project.
1 year
IMAGE BLOUIN TARDIF ARCHITECTS, PROVIDED BY UTILE
The future Le Méridien residential building at the corner of Saint-Laurent Boulevard and Ontario Street in Montreal will feature 167 affordable housing units for students.
Those who follow this column may think I'm just rambling: I'm fed up with bureaucracy, or rather bureaucracies that add up, intertwine and overlap to the detriment of the community. This lead screed is particularly harmful in residential areas, but not necessarily. L'UTILE, an organization that multiplies student housing projects, received an unexpected helping hand this year2. The city of Montreal has removed several of its usual administrative hurdles to make a 167-unit residential project possible in the city center. Result: UTILE was able to advance its schedule by a year and save at least 3 million in construction and financing costs. It is important. I repeat: we must increase these cuts everywhere.
1,190,000
However, getting construction back on track requires more than just cutting bureaucracy. According to projections by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), nearly 1.2 million housing units would need to be built in Quebec by the end of the decade to regain some form of “affordability.” That means 330,000 housing units would need to be built each year to meet that goal — light years away from the current rate. According to CMHC, if this trend continues, there will be barely 41,250 housing starts each year in Quebec by 2030, an exceedingly inadequate number3. We are still waiting for the action plan from the provincial minister in charge of housing, France-Élaine Duranceau.
– 48
At the beginning of the year I promised you 50 columns about the waste of public money4. I have delivered two so far. An unforgivable deficit. I express my remorse and commit to bringing you several more in 2024. Unfortunately, there is a risk that examples of the questionable use of our money will increase again. Some hypotheses, highly hypothetical? There will be small files, like those chalets renovated a million times in the parks of a large metropolis, and these more serious, out-of-the-box cases, which, depending on the trend of the polls, could also include a new road connection between two cities. I won't name a name. A real puzzle worth 10 billion. Those who live will see (or not).
A
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, LA PRESSE ARCHIVE
The Jean Talon Hospital in Montreal, where our columnist was treated
Please allow me to make one final comment along the way, which comes with a cliched warning: We only have one life to live. I learned it the hard way this year after dealing with flesh-eating bacteria5. I was fortunate to receive first-class care at Jean Talon Hospital, where I would like to once again express my gratitude to all the staff. Since then, several hundred of you have told me similar stories of illness, remission, and hope. Also out of sadness. Thank you for your touching generosity. With this in mind, I wish us together in 2024 more accessible public services for everyone, a touch of lightness and a good dose of letting go. Above all, health for each of you, dear readers.
Speaking of which: Which numbers particularly caught your attention last year? And which ones will you see in 2024?
Come on, happy new year!