Prime Minister François Legault and Mayor Valérie Plante intend to step up the fight against armed violence in the coming months. During a meeting on Monday at Château Dufresne, they reiterated their wish to see Ottawa ban the possession of handguns and tighten border security.
The Prime Minister said he was very concerned about the violent events in Montreal, the recent deaths of Jannai Dopwell-Bailey and the firearms in circulation. “It’s not the Montreal we love,” said Mr. Legault, who wants Ottawa to intervene to secure the borders.
“This violence is unacceptable and we no longer want to see it in Montreal. We are going to give a big blow in the coming months ”, indicated Mr. Legault.
It was the first meeting between Prime Minister Legault and Valérie Plante since the re-election of the mayor on November 7. Before meeting behind closed doors, they boarded an electric bus from the SRB Pie-IX to take stock of the progress of the work, most of which should be completed in the fall of 2022.
Mr. Legault and Ms. Plante also talked about transportation. The Premier wants the Eastern Metropolitan Express Network (REM) project to be improved so that the City of Montreal is a real partner in the project.
“We want the Caisse to work with the City of Montreal and the Government of Quebec. So, they presented a project, but this project must be improved, ”said Mr. Legault. “I want to say to those who demonstrated: ‘I heard you and I understand that there are improvements to be made to the Caisse project”. “
The project, estimated to cost $ 10 billion, may require further investment. “At this point, we are not ruling anything out. We are talking about a cost of around 10 billion. If everything had to be buried, it would be 20 billion and that would not be acceptable. Are we able to find compromises? He asked.
The extension of the blue metro line was also on the menu of their discussions. The Quebec government wants the project, the cost of which fell from 3.9 to 6.1 billion between 2018 and the spring of 2021, to be reviewed in order to lower the bill.
Further details will follow.