The Plante administration launched a cry from the heart in the face of cost overruns for municipal projects on Tuesday, vowing to do everything in its power to limit the effects of inflation and international events on the wallets of Montrealers.
Strongly attacked by the official opposition during the municipal council, the mayor’s team replied.
“It is certain that Montrealers are tired of seeing the costs explode. I think that our administration is also tired of seeing the costs explode, ”said Dominique Ollivier, right arm of Valérie Plante.
“We worked rigorously on projects that we had no choice but to do,” she said. As for respecting Montrealers’ ability to pay, I would like to remind the opposition that it was this administration that froze taxes, this administration that was at a 2% increase [de taxes] last year when inflation was much higher. »
A few minutes earlier, Mayor Plante had also defended her record.
“You are trying to say that the City of Montreal is the only one with cost overruns, whereas the bridge-tunnel is 500 million more and the REM de l’Ouest is talking about 1.5 billion more,” said the mayor. “Get out of your bubble and look at the current economic reality. »
It was opposition leader Aref Salem and his lieutenant Chantal Rossi who led the charge against the administration. In particular, they pointed to the invoice twice as high as expected for the Bellechasse garage (584 million), the cost overruns of the compost treatment centers, as well as the explosion in the price of the ozonation plant of the water.
“There is no light at the end of the tunnel,” Salem said. “It doesn’t make sense. We understand that there is inflation, we would understand that there is an additional 20% because of the war in Ukraine. But to exceed 1 billion in five projects is unacceptable. »