The Plante administration sharply criticized the provincial budget on Tuesday, accusing Quebec of “choosing to ignore the housing crisis”.
At the end of the day, the mayor published a press release in which she expressed her deep disappointment with the lack of massive reinvestment in public transit and housing, her two priorities.
“The 2023-2024 budget of the Government of Quebec does not meet the demands that have been clearly expressed by the metropolis and the metropolitan region. […] The metropolis will mobilize its housing partners tomorrow to find solutions, ”she said in writing. She won’t speak aloud until tomorrow.
“By ignoring the housing crisis, the Government of Quebec is further jeopardizing the affordability of the metropolis and the wallets of thousands of families. He will have to explain his choice,” continued the mayor. On the public transit front, the $400 million in emergency aid to transit companies is welcome, but a five-year commitment would have been better, Ms.me Plant.
The president of the executive committee of Valérie Plante, Dominique Ollivier, had moved to Quebec to hear the Minister of Finance Eric Girard. She came out of the blue room disappointed. “You get very little – if not nothing – on both counts” of housing and public transit, Ms.me Olivier in a telephone interview. “We are frankly disappointed. I don’t think that’s too strong to say. »
Dominique Ollivier estimates that the funding announced by Quebec will make it possible to build barely 600 affordable housing units in Montreal. ” In the meantime, [ils donnent] nine billion tax cuts for individuals, that’s 50,000 housing units. We could have solved the whole housing crisis” with this sum, she said.
“Below expectations”, says the UMQ
In a press release, the Union of Quebec Municipalities (UMQ) also expressed its disappointment.
“The budget does not provide any concrete measures to respond to inflation,” declared UMQ President and Gaspé Mayor Daniel Côté. Today, municipalities are under more pressure than ever, as they face a significant increase in their responsibilities, while having to provide highly essential services to their citizens. All this with a considerable increase in costs in several sectors. By reducing the amounts provided for in the QIP for municipal infrastructure, we are clearly going in the wrong direction. »
Mr. Côté indicated that he would now turn to the Minister of Municipal Affairs to plead the cause of the municipal world.