So how is Montreal?
Well, summarizes Valérie Plante, but not that much.
Since his re-election as mayor of the metropolis in November 2021, one crisis does not wait for the other. The politician agreed during a long interview with the team of The PressThursday, on the occasion of his mid-term assessment.
Homelessness has exploded throughout downtown, as have the number of empty office towers.
There is this confrontation (still ongoing) around the financing of public transport.
This poor record in terms of social housing construction.
This succession of worrying climatic events which repeatedly cause the city’s sewers to overflow.
Without forgetting the inflation which is weighing down the city’s finances (and will cause Montrealers’ property tax bills to jump).
Crises follow one another and overlap in Montreal. But what emerges from our meeting with Valérie Plante is also a growing divide between her administration and the government of François Legault.
The mayor cites Quebec’s decision to increase tuition fees for students from other provinces who will attend McGill and Concordia universities. She foresees a “significant impact” and is sorry about it.
In recent years, there have been several decisions and directions 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 clash of visions is particularly glaring on the issue of public transportation.
The province’s large cities, particularly the metropolis, have been demanding for months that Quebec invest more to absorb deficits and improve service.
The mayor says she made “an offer” to the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Geneviève Guilbault, last May. “We were more in a mode of openness: “Maybe we could pay more for the cities.” »
But since May, “radio silence” from the minister, says Plante. Until Mme Guilbault returned with a proposal deemed scandalous by the cities in mid-October. Proposal which would reduce Quebec’s participation in financing and would lead to significant reductions in service to users, depending on the city.
“Currently, we are really backed into a wall,” says Valérie Plante. We don’t understand what’s 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 starting to appear within the Metropolitan Community of Montreal (CMM), a group of 82 cities led by Valérie Plante.
Several municipalities in Basses-Laurentides and Lanaudière are beginning to question the current method of financing public transportation, according to several well-placed sources. These cities believe they have to pay ever more to absorb the deficits of Montreal, Longueuil and Laval, while their residents, in the suburbs, have access to increasingly pitiful service.
Some mayors are even starting to consider leaving the CMM, which would involve unraveling an important legislative spaghetti. It’s far from being a done deal, but it’s a sign that things are serious.
Valérie Plante says she is well aware of the discontent.
“I talk to them a lot, because it’s really important for me as president of the CMM, precisely, to be able to hear the frustrations, then the issues, then to hear their solutions too,” says Valérie Plante. They are right to be angry. »
We will have to see how Montreal reacts to the new “final” financing proposal unveiled this Friday by Minister Guilbault1. Clashes are to be expected: Quebec calculates that the cities of the CMM display “unallocated” budgetary surpluses of more than 800 million which could be used, it is believed, to absorb the deficit of transport companies.
The war of numbers is far from over.
The schism between Quebec and Montreal is evident in another hot issue: housing.
The Plante administration has thrown out all kinds of figures over the years to defend its record, but the mayor recognizes that construction starts are clearly insufficient. She admits that Montreal will have to do more to reduce bureaucracy and speed up the issuance of permits2.
But once again, she throws the ball to Quebec.
She accuses the CAQ of having underinvested during the first years of its mandate, among others in the AccèsLogis program.
I didn’t succeed in social housing. The reason is very simple: I took it for granted that the CAQ [investirait] like all governments over the last 40 years.
Valérie Plante, mayor of Montreal
Valérie Plante’s comments were received more than coldly in Quebec. Annoyance is at its height in several firms, according to my sources.
The Legault government defends its housing record tooth and nail and throws out a load of figures and measures adopted since its accession to power. For example, the 7,200 additional “rent supplement programs” that it granted to poor tenants, or the new powers given to cities in terms of densification.
We must hope that this ping-pong of blame stops as quickly as possible so that the case can be resolved. This is counterproductive in every way.
In this regard, the mayor says she is very looking forward to the budget update on November 7, during which Quebec is expected to announce hundreds of additional millions dedicated to affordable housing.
Not everything is dark in Valérie Plante’s assessment, of course.
She believes that Montreal is transforming for the better environmentally. “Street by street, sidewalk by sidewalk, even the parks that we develop, the land that we appropriate to green them, that’s positive. »
The mayor also highlights the marked drop in armed violence events in 2023, compared to 2022. She attributes this decline to the success of the “Montreal model”, which relies on an increased community presence on the ground.
Valérie Plante is also delighted with the announcement made this week by Quebec, namely the conclusion of a partnership agreement which will replace the current “fiscal pact” 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 is good. »
The next two years will be far from relaxing for Valérie Plante, to say the least. She will increasingly have to defend – and justify – the City’s spending to taxpayers, who are being squeezed like lemons by inflation.
The transformation of Mount Royal Park for nearly 100 million dollars and the closure of a slope to automobile traffic, despite the contrary opinion of the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM), remain in the way of the throat of part of the electorate. One example among others.
Never mind: Valérie Plante says she wants to seek a third term. She says she still has “fire” and is convinced that Montreal is “changing for the better.”
It will be up to the voters to judge whether she keeps her word.