Mayor Valérie Plante demands that Quebec and Ottawa do more to help vulnerable people – including Roxham Road asylum seekers – who are changing the atmosphere of the Village in downtown Montreal.
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During Monday’s city council, Ms. Plante argued that the Village is an area “under high pressure”, and this “for a long time”.
The mayor maintained that she does not want to “push back the vulnerable populations” of the metropolis, but that she wants Quebec and Ottawa to be more present in this file.
“I will ask the respective levels of government to take their responsibilities when, all of a sudden, we add asylum seekers who are vulnerable [à un quadrilatère qui est à pleine capacité] and that we mix it with other people who have special needs, ”she said.
She was then answering a question from the leader of the opposition, Aref Salem, who lamented the state of the once “festive and lively” neighborhood, but which has “become a place of desolation”.
Ms. Plante acknowledged that there was an overpopulation of homeless people with mental health or addiction problems, in addition to refugees.
“We’ve been sounding the alarm for months,” she said. The role of the mayoress of Montreal and that of Ville-Marie is to get everyone around the table, but sometimes you have to speak louder to ensure that those around you take their responsibilities. »
A few days earlier, the mayor had deplored the lack of action by the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal. She accused him of not responding to mental health requests.
“For me right now, there is someone absent around the table, and it’s the CIUSSS,” she said last Wednesday.
For his part, the CIUSSS spokesperson, Jean-Nicolas Aubé, had affirmed that the center was very present in the discussions.