The “mayoress of mobility”, brought to power four years ago, today finds herself in an uncomfortable position which forces her to consider reductions in services to the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) to get it out. of its financial mess. In editorial interview at To have to On Friday, Valérie Plante said she expected Quebec to once again come to the aid of transport companies hard hit by the pandemic.
“A break in service, for me, is the wrong thing to do because we want to encourage people to leave their solo car and return to public transport”, explains the one who will try to be re-elected on November 7 next.
Faced with a shortfall of $ 62 million in 2022, the STM has already considered several scenarios for reducing supply, one of which consists of reducing service in the métro by 30%. But Valérie Plante believes that it is possible to seek savings here and there while limiting the effects for users. “What I asked the STM to do is acupuncture. It can’t be wall-to-wall, ”she explains, without ruling out the possibility of staff and service cuts.
The outgoing mayor has high hopes for assistance from the Government of Quebec in this matter, not only for the STM, but also for the transport companies of Longueuil and Laval and for Exo. “We know that it is only public transport in the metropolitan area that will allow the government of Quebec to reach its greenhouse gas reduction targets,” she argues.
Valérie Plante affirms that her relations with the Minister of Metropolitan France, Chantal Rouleau, are good. Except that the relations don’t seem very harmonious.
And last March, the minister lambasted Mayor Plante in an interview with Press, denouncing the slowness of the City of Montreal in carrying out decontamination work on land in the East and for which Quebec has granted $ 100 million. And last week, Minister Rouleau’s entourage criticized the STM for having lost control over the costs of its major projects.
“What I can tell you is that when Mme Rouleau writes to me, I answer him within the hour, and vice versa. We are here to find solutions, ”says Valérie Plante.
The mayor is staying the course on the mobility projects launched during her mandate, in particular with regard to cycle paths and the Express bicycle network (REV). “It was windy. I understood that during the pandemic it was hard for traders. But I am happy to have done it during the pandemic because here we are coming out of the crisis and things are going well. It is also keeping an eye on the Eastern Metropolitan Express Network (REM) which, with its aerial structures, is causing great concern.
Capped taxes
When Project Montreal’s electoral platform was launched two weeks ago, Valérie Plante pledged to keep tax increases at the level of inflation if she is returned to power. Interviewed at To have to, the mayor is modifying her promise: like Denis Coderre, she will limit property tax increases to a maximum of 2% for the first year given the uncertainty about the expected inflation rate for 2022.
However, in terms of budget, Valérie Plante is the target of many criticisms. His opponent for mayor of Montreal Denis Coderre proclaims in all the forums that Montreal is on the edge of a financial abyss and that the Plante administration has spent without counting during his mandate. Valérie Plante tempers. “We have shown a lot of condescension towards me by saying that I did not know that, finances, but we work with experts who do audits and forecasts and who tell us; it’s good, ”she retorts.
Last August, the City’s preliminary budget framework reported a shortfall totaling $ 780 million for the next three years. According to Valérie Plante, there is no need to worry. “When I took office in 2017, the gap was 300 million. We found solutions. We are able to find solutions, she says. But I do not intend to use taxation to cover the deficit. “
Even in this context, she does not believe that her proposal to offer “baby welcome boxes” filled with “essentials” for new parents, is far-fetched. “The idea of the baby box, of which I am extremely proud, is to create a feeling of belonging. I could have done an advertising campaign of two million, but there are plenty of families who are in need, ”she explains.
Housing in the heart of the countryside
If the pink line was Valérie Plante’s flagship promise in 2017, her campaign is now around 60,000 affordable housing units within 10 years, although her administration has failed to achieve the goal. 12,000 social and affordable housing units promised four years ago. The affordable housing component has been reached, but not the social housing component. At present, only 1082 of the promised 6000 are built and inhabited.
Valérie Plante considers, however, that her administration has succeeded in increasing the capacity for action of the Housing Department with the purchase of land for new projects. It is also committed to taking the necessary measures to ensure that the affordability of these new homes is maintained for 40 years. And while Denis Coderre intends to abolish the Regulation for a mixed metropolis (also known as 20-20-20) if it is brought to power, Valérie Plante sees it rather as an essential tool to attract families and the workers. A model that she would like to see spread in the suburbs.
There are two weeks left before the ballot and the race remains as close as ever between Valérie Plante and Denis Coderre who, according to a CROP-Radio-Canada poll, are still neck and neck.