The mayoress of Montreal, Valérie Plante, went there with a cry from the heart on Tuesday at the microphone of All one morning. Speaking about the miserable spiral that afflicts the eastern sector of the city center, she urged Quebec and Ottawa to do more to relieve the pressure.
Mme Plante denounced Ottawa’s inexcusable slowness in delivering work permits to migrants whom the feds chose to cram into the Place Dupuis hotel, where an emergency shelter for the homeless had been established in 2020. to 2021. The presence of migrants, she says, adds another vulnerable population to the mille-feuille of distress that the Place Émilie-Gamelin sector has become. She also asked for increased resources from Quebec in intervention with people who experience mental health or addiction problems.
Neighborhood corporate citizen, The duty has a front row seat to witness the deterioration of the city centre. We have chosen this neighborhood in full knowledge of the facts, volunteers to participate in this permanent experience of social diversity that we find nowhere else in Quebec. Every day, we read on bruised, disoriented, poked, emaciated faces the novel of ingratitude that the human condition conveys.
But there, the glass of misery overflows, and we are not the only ones to think so. The impoverishment of the neighborhood is to blame for the closure of the iconic Archambault bookstore. It insecures the citizens who express their fed up in our pages. Some are considering leaving the neighborhood because of the accelerated erosion of minimum security conditions.
A citizen interviewed by The duty, Manuel Poitras, puts his finger on the malaise. “I have the impression that there is an injustice. There is no other place in Montreal where we would accept that,” he said. “That” is the distress that we choose to park in the Gay Village without worrying about the indignity of the living conditions of citizens and vulnerable populations. “That” is the resignation of political elites in the face of their responsibilities. Like the citizens of the Milton-Parc sector before them, those of the city center weigh their words so as not to stigmatize clienteles who are already too stigmatized. They refute the “not in my backyard” label. It’s just that the yard is full.
The exit of Mayor Plante will not change anything. The indolent federal will not improve his ability to deliver services by magic despite his foot calls. And Quebec has no reserve nurses in its pocket, overwhelmed as it is with the indomitable beast of waiting times in emergencies. His cry from the heart makes us forget that the City of Montreal has not exhausted all its options.
The healthiness and cleanliness of the neighborhood is in the heart of Montreal. Ditto for urban revitalization, the reconversion of the Voyageur block (property of the City since 2018) and public safety. At the moment, the municipal authorities accept that public places and subway entrances are transformed into scenes of sale and consumption of drugs. The message that this colorful fauna receives is that the city center is a safe space conducive to all the pranks.
As for the citizens, they are offered the choice of exile or cruel resignation. This is not a policy worthy of the progressive values of Projet Montréal. Last summer, the City launched the Village Forum, a public consultation of residents and neighborhood organizations. The results will be known this winter, and it will not be too soon. Mayor Plante will have to be the main promoter of a stakeholder engagement project, including the business community, to straighten out downtown before it’s too late. It is only by exercising true mobilizing leadership that Montreal will be able to have an influence on Quebec and on Ottawa.