If she is re-elected, outgoing mayor Valérie Plante promises to extend 2 million to distribute “welcome baby boxes” to new parents in Montreal. Worth $ 100 each, said boxes would contain pajamas, blankets, onesies, books and subway tickets, among others.
“The goal is to allow all parents, regardless of the means available to their family, to start their lives on a certain level of equality”, explained Mme Plante during a press briefing held at Projet Montréal’s premises on Thursday morning.
It also intends to offer various “vouchers” to new parents, such as metro tickets or even museum tickets. A guide to services offered and parent support organizations would also be included. For each parent who does not wish to receive the box, the City will make a donation to an organization helping new parents, we are assured.
Currently, approximately 20,000 babies are born each year in Montreal; at $ 100 per basket, the measure is therefore valued at around $ 2 million. “I think it’s 2 million very well invested. I want us to encourage and send a beautiful message to families, ”said the mayoress, saying that she wanted to make families want to“ stay here ”.
His party is thus inspired by the “Baby Box” trend, which is already quite widespread in France. Recalling that this measure “will obviously not resolve all inequalities”, the candidate for mayor of Montreal-North, Will Prosper, stressed “that we are at least giving ourselves a helping hand to achieve a certain equality chances on day 1 of our lives ”, especially for single-parent families. “We want families to feel good. And we will continue to work in this direction, with our investments in parks in particular, ”also recalled the candidate for mayor of Villeray – Saint-Michel – Parc-Extension, Laurence Lavigne-Lalonde.
A lack of interest?
Earlier, Thursday, a CROP poll commissioned by Radio-Canada revealed that Denis Coderre and Valérie Plante are still neck and neck, the first collecting 26% of the voting intentions, against 25% for the second. The leader of the Montreal Movement, Balarama Holness, obtained only 5% of support.
At the last sounding, that of Léger and TVA Nouvelles, Valérie Plante collected 36%, against 35% for Denis Coderre. “I am extremely proud of the campaign we are running. The trend shows that we are going up all the time ”, nevertheless maintained Mme Plant Thursday, by supporting work hard “to get them, these points.” “My opponent started with a lead that is crumbling day by day,” she also reiterated in passing.
In fact, it is above all the number of voters still undecided that is striking in this new poll, while 27% of respondents still do not know for whom they will vote. “We’re coming out of a pandemic and it’s a bit like the federal election, too. I don’t mean to say that there is no interest, but necessarily, people have concerns that are very focused on the job, the children. That’s the reality, ”admitted Mme Plant about it.
For the rest, the outgoing mayor says she greatly appreciated the appreciation rate of her team; 48% of those polled say they are “fairly satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their administration. “This is a figure that speaks a lot. People are receptive. They want to hear from us, it’s up to us to convince them, to talk to them, ”concluded M.me Plant.