The opposition to Montreal city hall accuses the Plante-Ollivier administration of having tabled a 2022 budget “out of touch with reality” Wednesday morning, which does not take into account the current pandemic.
According to Aref Salem, leader of the Ensemble Montreal party, the new budget is “already out of date”.
“The budget does not contain any extraordinary measures to respond to this fifth wave which is hitting us,” he denounces.
“We must support our residents, our community organizations, our merchants, our restaurant owners, our cultural community, not to mention the tourist community. “
Rather than tabling it just before Christmas, the municipal administration should have waited until January to finalize this document, in order to be able to adjust it to respond to the meteoric rise in COVID-19 cases and to the new measures decreed by the provincial government , says Salem.
“We ask them to go back to the drawing board to prepare a budget better suited to reality,” he says.
The City has no room for maneuver to adapt to the pandemic, deplores the finance spokesperson, Alan De Sousa. “The drawers are empty. We are in debt to the ears, ”protested Mr. De Sousa.
According to him, the administration has overestimated the revenues that must come from fines and penalties, transfer duties and parking fees, and will face a shortfall in 2022.