The tone is rising between Pierre Poilievre and Quebec municipal elected officials. The Conservative leader attacked head-on Thursday the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, and the mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand, whom he describes as “incompetent.” He accuses them of blocking housing projects.
“Massive drop in construction in Quebec, while Trudeau pays billions to incompetent mayors, Marchand and Plante, who block construction sites. Federal money for cities will be linked to the number of houses and apartments built when I am PM,” Mr. Poilievre insisted on his X account.
He was referring to the drastic drop in housing starts in several Canadian cities, as revealed in a report published Tuesday by the CMHC. On the island of Montreal, construction starts have fallen by 26% over the past year to stand at a paltry total of 7,705 new housing units.
Quickly, Valérie Plante retorted to the Conservative leader “that before calling anyone incompetent, Mr. Poilievre should understand that in Quebec, federal funding for housing does not go through the cities.”
PHOTO CATHERINE LEFEBVRE, ARCHIVES SPECIAL COLLABORATION
The mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand, and the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante
A crucial agreement
In Quebec, the federal government must go through its provincial counterpart to finance housing projects, under an agreement signed between the two levels. “Common sense is also to understand the financing mechanisms specific to each province,” said M.me Plant, recycling one of the conservative’s favorite slogans.
Repeating that “the housing crisis affects everyone”, Mme Plante also argued that “in such circumstances, the quality of a leader is measured by his ability to bring together the necessary forces to face them.” “We are eagerly awaiting his concrete and costed action plan to house our world. »
Mayor Marchand was quick to react either. “This is how he treats Quebec politicians. It is a testimony of deep contempt for Quebec politicians. For a man who wants to be head of state, acting like this is the opposite, it is not common sense at all,” he said at a press briefing.
Mr. Marchand accused the Conservative of “not giving a damn about the rules” and of showing that he “will ignore them” once in power. “It’s very disappointing. […] When you want to be prime minister, common sense is to respect people, it is to understand the mechanisms that will govern us,” the elected official reiterated, before adding: “we cannot blocks any construction site, we are in a process of acceleration even.”
Not a first
For some time now, Mr. Poilievre has regularly blamed Canadian cities for the low number of housing starts. “We need to get local governments out of the way of builders,” the Conservative leader said in September on the sidelines of the Association of Ontario Cities conference.
If elected, he wants to require cities to increase the number of building permits by 15% to continue to receive federal funding. The Conservative leader has also already blamed cities for the increase in crime during the pandemic.
The Union of Municipalities of Quebec (UMQ) for its part denounced the “contemptuous remarks” of Mr. Poilievre “on such an important issue”, inviting the conservative to “avoid simplistic shortcuts and to show respect”.
On the federal scene, Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet also added his two cents. “Pierre Poilievre blames municipalities for the housing crisis as much as Justin Trudeau when you listen to him. […] He will not do better than the liberals either in terms of interference or in terms of contempt. »
New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh also condemned his opponent’s comments, asking him to apologize. “It’s unacceptable what Pierre Poilievre did,” he said at a press conference. “It is not an example of a leader to insult the mayors of the largest cities in Quebec. It’s something children do to insult others, but that’s exactly Mr. Poilievre’s character: someone who wants to insult instead of finding solutions, wants to divide instead of proposing solutions. »
Mr. Poilievre’s initial tweet was paired with comments from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) economist Francis Cortellino. The latter argued this week on Radio-Canada that in Quebec, so few houses have never been built since 1955.
However, a clarification is necessary: the CMHC expert was only referring to the construction of individual houses. However, for many years, the majority of construction starts have concerned multiple dwellings, such as condos. Thus, despite the significant slowdown observed in 2023, this year was not the lowest in construction starts in Quebec. There was half as much construction in the early 1980s and 1990s, when the country was hit by economic crises.
With Pierre-André Normandin and Mylène Crête, The Press