Following the tragic death of a seven-year-old girl under the wheels of a car in the Centre-Sud district, the opposition at Montreal City Hall accuses Mayor Valérie Plante of having ignored citizens in the area who have long called for traffic calming measures.
Stung to the quick on the occasion of a special municipal council on Thursday morning, Mme Plante countered by calling the opposition “hypocritical” because councilors from the Ensemble Montréal party opposed measures to promote pedestrian safety and derided several administration initiatives to reduce place of the automobile in the metropolis.
“The opposition has already accused our party, Projet Montréal, of wanting to ‘plateauise’ the whole city, but I’m proud that we’re ‘plateauisation’, because that means that we put security at the top of the list of our priorities, unlike you,” said the mayor.
She was referring to measures intended to reduce speed and traffic in the Plateau-Mont-Royal, under the administration of borough mayor Luc Ferrandez, which sowed controversy a few years ago.
The debates ignited and the president of the council, Martine Musau Muele, had to intervene to ask the elected officials to show restraint. “I refuse to politicize and disguise the death of this baby,” she said, trying to calm things down.
More crossing guards needed
For years, citizens have been unsuccessfully asking the administration to secure the Parthenais and Rouen intersection, the very one where little Maria perished, lamented opposition councilor Alba Zuniga-Ramos.
“The administration will not reach the target of 250 intersections redesigned and equipped with lights conforming to the new pedestrian guide in 2022, continued Mr.me Ramos. Why is there still no traffic calming measure and a crossing guard at the corner of Rouen and Parthenais, despite multiple requests from citizens and schools? »
The counselor pointed out that in 2018, Ensemble Montréal sounded the alarm about the lack of school crossing guards and asked that the quotas of crossing guards be ended, and instead be added according to the needs expressed in the field.
Mayor Plante replied that her administration has taken “unprecedented steps” to redevelop the streets of the city, with a priority given to safety rather than fluidity.
“When Denis Coderre [ancien chef d’Ensemble Montréal] was mayor of Ville-Marie, he systematically refused to put up speed bumps or any signage because it was not good for fluidity. So, before throwing a stone at us, while people are suffering and everyone is asking questions, do some self-examination, ”she said.
Valérie Plante also denounced the fact that two opposition councilors on the Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough council voted against the construction of a sidewalk projection this week.
“It’s sad to see that instead of giving answers and taking responsibility in the face of a tragedy, we don’t respond, especially to citizens who make requests,” commented Ms.me Zuniga-Ramos.