Executive Committee of the Plante Administration | Changing of guard on homelessness

Mayor Valérie Plante has decided to change the person responsible for homelessness, at a time when the issue is at the heart of the news.

After two years in charge of the file, elected official Josefina Blanco is handing over to her colleague Robert Beaudry, the mayor announced as part of a mini-reshuffle of her executive committee.

Mr. Beaudry “spent more than ten years working with organizations fighting homelessness and therefore he has this understanding, in addition to a position [de conseiller municipal] within the district of Ville-Marie,” said Valérie Plante on Thursday at a press conference. She assured that this should not, however, be seen as a disavowal of the work of M.^me White. “Absolutely not,” she said.

Josefina Blanco, elected in Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie, keeps the files of diversity, social inclusion, universal accessibility, the status of women, youth and seniors. Robert Beaudry adds the issue of homelessness to that of urban planning, which he already holds.

The other heavyweights of the Plante administration all remain in place. Luc Rabouin, appointed president of the executive committee after the resignation of Dominique Ollivier, keeps his place. He recovers the finances, which fell into the hands of Benoit Dorais after the crisis of last November.

Éric Alan Caldwell, president of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), will no longer sit on the executive committee. He will be able to “dedicate himself entirely to the issue of public transportation,” explained Valérie Plante.

Two district mayors are joining the executive committee: the mayor of Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension, Laurence Lavigne-Lalonde, will be responsible for large parks, while her sister from Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame -de-Grâce, Gracia Kasoki Katahwa, receives human resources and the fight against racism.

No independent or opposition elected official is part of Valérie Plante’s executive committee.