Valérie Plante’s right arm had to defend her support for banning cars on the Camillien-Houde route on Monday, while she coordinated a major consultation which recommended the opposite.
Dominique Ollivier was president of the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) until her arrival in politics in 2021. After consulting 10,000 citizens, in 2019, the organization recommended maintaining “vehicle traffic throughout of the axis » Remembrance-Camillien-Houde, but to secure it.
“Why are we turning our backs on 10,000 people who spoke out? », criticized the elected opposition representative Chantal Rossi, at the municipal council on Monday afternoon. “Project Montreal has learned nothing and has changed nothing in its methods. This party showed it once again this week by ignoring the recommendations of the OPCM concerning access to the Camillien-Houde route. »
Mme Ollivier defended herself by arguing that the 10,000 people consulted were far from unanimous in favor of maintaining car traffic and that the OCPM report cannot be reduced to this single element.
“Of the 16 recommendations [de l’OCPM]the plan that was revealed includes almost all of it: the pleasure path, the ring road, the securing of Camillien-Houde, the new belvedere, the securing of the Remembrance interchange and the intersection of the Parc/ Mont-Royal,” she described.
“Everything is in there except one thing,” she continued. “We did exactly what the OCPM told us to do. » She added: “it is an ambitious project, it is a project for the future and I would have liked to see the people of the opposition be with us on this”.
“I’m a little stunned,” replied M.me Rossi. The president of the executive committee, who was at the OCPM at that time, signed the report. The first recommendation of the report is not to move forward with the closure of Camillien-Houde. »
Valérie Plante announced last Thursday that she intended to transform the Camillien-Houde route into a bicycle and pedestrian path accessible to emergency vehicles by 2027.
“The commission notes that, although the place of the automobile on the mountain has not been unanimously agreed upon for nearly 90 years, no plan or consultation for more than 25 years has proposed its ban,” indicated the report of the OCPM of 2019. “Above all, the problem remains transit traffic, which still remains a concern today. »