The Village is sick and the Plante administration is delaying giving it the care it needs to get it back on its feet, says Ensemble Montreal, which on Thursday called for an increased presence of cadets from the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) and socio-community stakeholders, as well as measures to attract businesses to the sector hard hit by the pandemic. The administration counters that it has already drawn up a plan to revitalize the neighborhood in crisis.
Ensemble Montréal believes that the City must ensure the permanent presence of mixed teams to respond to the “humanitarian crisis” and homelessness issues and provide a resource open 24 hours a day, seven days a week to accommodate vulnerable people. It must also introduce incentives to attract merchants to rue Sainte-Catherine Est, where there are many vacant premises. “We could think of a temporary tax holiday or financial compensation, as we see in other cities across Canada,” suggests Ensemble Montréal councilor Julien Hénault-Ratelle.
“While the patient is dying, the doctors look at each other without flinching and wonder who is going to operate,” launched the leader of Ensemble Montreal, Aref Salem, who criticizes the administration for its slowness to act. He argues that the borough of Ville-Marie should notably increase the number of public toilets and set up more cleanliness brigades.
The Plante administration, however, assures that it has already begun to deploy measures to revitalize the sector and restore a sense of security that has been lacking since the pandemic. “We, the action plans, we do them with the population and not on a corner of the table as the opposition did. If there was a magic wand to save the Village, we would know it and the formula, we would have already put it in place. We are trying to find structuring formulas with the population,” argued the adviser to Projet Montréal in Saint-Jacques, Robert Beaudry.
Thus, maintains the administration, a greater presence of police officers and members of the community consultation and rapprochement team (ECCR) is planned. Two psychosocial workers from the Mobile Social Intervention Mediation Team (ÉMMIS) will be dedicated to the Berri-UQAM sector seven days a week and the City intends to set up a team with the Montreal Fire Safety Service to inspect the buildings. vacant.
The Village is attracting a lot of attention and that’s a good thing, says the general manager of the Village’s Commercial Development Company (SDC), Gabrielle Rondy. “The situation has been getting worse for months. In winter, it’s even worse because the commercial mix in the Village means that we don’t have the attractiveness that we have during the summer season. At the municipal, provincial and federal level, everyone sees the issues we are going through and that solutions are being put forward, that’s good news, ”she commented.
Rue Sainte-Catherine welcomed 24 new businesses in 2022, while 14 closed their doors during the same period. Currently, the vacancy rate for businesses is around 20%. Ms. Rondy recognizes that the work planned on rue Sainte-Catherine Est represents an ordeal that merchants fear. But she mentions that the artery will be more attractive afterwards. “Last year, the Village welcomed more than 2 million people during pedestrianization alone,” she said.