The broken abacus of 2023 | The Press

Figures which surprise, others which enrage, still others which move. Allow me a digital look back at the year 2023, which many are eager to leave behind – me first. One last burst of naughtiness before 2024.

10,000

Anyone with a pair of eyes will have noticed: the homeless are more and more numerous, and more and more damaged, in Montreal and elsewhere in Quebec. Makeshift camps are multiplying. The shelters are overflowing. The staff of community organizations are at the end of their tether. Funding is lacking, as demonstrated by the sad example of Accueil Bonneau, which will soon have to stop distributing meals on weekends… There are now 10,000 homeless people in the province, according to the results of a large census, and the reality is undoubtedly worse. Heartbreaking.

10 p.m.

Not in my backyard, you say? I wrote in the fall about these citizens who move in next to bars and performance halls with full knowledge of the facts and then increase the number of noise complaints. Inconsistency knows no bounds: residents of the new condo towers that have sprung up around Place des Festivals, in the heart of the Quartier des spectacles, are also starting to complain, according to my informants. These champions of individualism would like the free outdoor shows of the Jazz Festival or the Francos, the anti-inflation shield par excellence for families, to end at 10 p.m. rather than 11 p.m. Put in traffic or move!

3.2 million

This is the operating budget of the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) this year, $200,000 above 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 paramunicipal organization in 2024 after its restructuring. What struck me the most, beyond the nonchalant management of public funds, is the extreme vulgarity of the deposed president Isabelle Beaulieu. The Press revealed this week text exchanges between M^me Beaulieu and the general secretary of the OCPM, Guy Grenier¹. “The fuckers will have done harm [sic] at the office,” she wrote about the Quebecor journalists who unearthed the scandal. I’ll let you judge who really did the most damage to the organization’s reputation.

½

Half of the 31,000 km of roads maintained by the Quebec Ministry of Transport are in poor condition, according to a damning report from the Auditor General. Worse: a “significant proportion” of these roadways have reached the end of their life. Auditor Guylaine Leclerc criticized the Ministry for the inadequacy of its maintenance work, its poor planning and its general lack of clear information about the state of its own network. Fortunately there is public transport…

½ (again)

Please forget my last sentence here. It was a difficult year for public transportation. Even if, paradoxically, major projects have been inaugurated or finally started – I am talking here about the first branch of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) and the extension of the blue line of the Montreal metro. Two gigantic shadows tarnish the picture: transport companies spent the year trying to convince Minister Geneviève Guilbault to reinvest in their operations (and their deficits), and the governance of several projects was marked by an indescribable mess. Not very encouraging. In the meantime, the Quebec tramway was canceled by the Legault government, after gigantic cost overruns. Its fate is up in the air – as is the half-billion dollars already spent on the project.

1 year

Those who follow this column may be starting to think that I’m rambling: I’m fed up with bureaucracy, or rather of the bureaucracies, which add up, intertwine and overlap to the detriment of the community. This lead screed is particularly harmful in the housing sector, but it is not inevitable. L’UTILE, an organization which multiplies student housing projects, received an unexpected helping hand this year². The City of Montreal has removed several of its usual administrative obstacles in order to facilitate a 167 housing project in the city center. Result: UTILE was able to advance its schedule by one year and save at least 3 million in construction and financing costs. It’s major. I repeat: we must increase these reductions everywhere.

1,190,000

It will take more than cutting red tape to get construction going again, though. According to forecasts from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), almost 1.2 million housing units would need to be built in Quebec by the end of the decade to hope to return to a certain form of “affordability”. This means that 330,000 housing units would have to be built every year to reach this target… light years from the current rate. According to CMHC, if the trend continues, there will be barely 41,250 housing starts each year in Quebec by 2030, an extraordinarily insufficient number³. We are still waiting for the action plan from the provincial minister responsible for Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau.

– 48

I promised you earlier this year 50 columns about the waste of public funds⁴. I have delivered two so far. An unforgivable deficit. I express contrition and commit to delivering several more to you in 2024. Because examples of questionable use of our money, unfortunately, risk once again proliferating. Some hypotheses, highly hypothetical? There will be small files, like these chalets renovated with millions in the parks of a large metropolis, and these heavier cases, taken out of mothballs, which could, depending on the trend of the polls, include a new road link between two cities that I will not name. A real mystery question worth 10 billion. Whoever lives will see (or not).

A

Please allow me one last one for the road, which comes with a cliché alert: we only have one life to live. I learned it the hard way this year after grappling with flesh-eating bacteria⁵. I was fortunate to receive high-caliber care at the Jean-Talon hospital, where I once again salute all the staff. Since then, several hundred of you have told me similar stories of illness, remission and hope. Of mourning, too. I thank you for your touching generosity. On this, I wish us collectively more accessible public services for all in 2024, a hint of lightness and a good dose of letting go. Health, above all, for each of you, dear readers.

While we’re at it, what figures stood out to you in the last year? And which ones will you be watching in 2024?

Come on, happy new year!