Co-owner of Bar Le Cocktail on rue Sainte-Catherine Est, Luc Généreux plans to reopen his terrace, which has been closed for several days. It is because the tenant believes that the Collective Intervention Strategy for the Village, unveiled Thursday by the administration of Valérie Plante, gives hope for an improvement in the atmosphere on this artery marked by an increase in homelessness, drug addiction and violence.
“We are going to give the runner a chance. We will see what it will do, “said the Duty Mr. Généreux, after the administration’s press conference. “We are all a little impatient to see if it will work and if it will have an effect. Everyone is exasperated. »
Mayor Valérie Plante, Saint-Jacques city councilor Robert Beaudry and the director of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), Fady Dagher, were in the Village on Thursday to present the plan that authorities are planning. put in place to bring some peace of mind to this area where homelessness and drug addiction have been gaining ground for years.
Squads and attractions
The plan which includes 35 actions. The implementation of some of them has already begun, such as an increase in police surveillance in the field, the addition of cleanliness brigades and the increased availability of the Mobile Mediation and Social Intervention Team (EMMIS) on a schedule better suited to nightlife, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Other measures will be implemented gradually. Investments are planned in particular for urban development and site animation. “These are ways to attract people so that there is a mix of people in the street,” explained Valérie Plante. “When you have a street where all kinds of people meet there and it’s not a place for a single category of people, that’s where it makes cohabitation easier. The efforts of the last few months are beginning to bear fruit, but all is not settled. »
According to the mayor, it is important that partners, such as the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, be involved in the application of the intervention plan and that additional investments be granted to community resources. and health present in the Village and elsewhere in the city.
The Minister responsible for Social Services, Lionel Carmant, was not present Thursday, although the notice of meeting of the City announced his participation in the press conference. His deputy chief of staff, Mathieu Noël, however, maintains that it was a mistake. “We had CIUSSS representatives on site during the announcement and we will continue our usual collaboration with the City for homelessness and drug addiction issues,” he said in an email.
Hope among traders
Traders do not expect the mood in the Village to change drastically in the short term, but they are pinning a lot of hope on the plan presented on Thursday.
The general manager of the Village’s Commercial Development Corporation, Gabrielle Rondy, admits that the 17e pedestrianization season is particularly difficult. “That merchants close their terraces because of security and cohabitation issues is unacceptable,” she said.
The police have been more visible for a few weeks, but they do not intervene often enough, considers Luc Généreux for his part. “They put in a lot of staff, but they don’t really watch what’s happening on the ground,” he says. “I don’t want to lay blame. We just can’t wait to see the concrete effects of the plan. »
According to the leader of the opposition at City Hall, Aref Salem, the Plante administration took far too long to develop an intervention plan for the Village, which has been struggling for years with difficult cohabitation issues. Ensemble Montréal is of the opinion that the City could have taken inspiration from the plan that its party presented last March to resolve a few short-term irritants. “It takes more toilets, more ashtrays, and in the medium term, it takes adapted housing and resources accessible 24/7,” he listed.
For her part, the Solidarity MNA for Sainte-Marie–Saint-Jacques, Manon Massé, points out that the intervention plan has the merit of bringing together several partners around the same table. However, she points the finger at the CAQ government, which she says is not doing enough to tackle the housing crisis. “Why is there a homelessness crisis? It is because upstream, there is impoverishment and people are not able to afford housing. »