Montreal, Quebec City mayors call for better partnership with Quebec government
The Quebec government needs to see Montreal and other municipalities as genuine partners in addressing issues like housing, homelessness and infrastructure, Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada said Tuesday.
Martinez Ferrada was speaking alongside Quebec City Mayor Bruno Marchand at a conference organized by the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal.
“When you talk about solutions to the challenges we face, whether social, economic or others, it’s municipalities that will drive them,” Martinez Ferrada said. “And in those moments, we need to be at the decision-making table with the Quebec government. But, unfortunately, we often aren’t.”
During a 30-minute roundtable, Martinez Ferrada and Marchand exchanged views on making cities more agile, delays in getting major projects off the ground, and the need for better long-term planning by the province.
On infrastructure, Martinez Ferrada pointed to Montreal’s Notre-Dame St. as a glaring example — “We’ve been talking about redoing it for 40 years; can we finally do it?” she said — while noting how difficult it can be to move ahead with projects of that size.
“Let’s not treat cities like any other development project. We’re not in competition,” Martinez Ferrada said. “Can I sit down with Quebec and say, ‘Here are my priorities. Let’s draw up a joint financing plan.’”
Marchand, for his part, expressed frustration at the challenges cities face when trying to act quickly.
“We need to stop with these bloody calls for proposals,” he said. “They take forever, they’re supposed to come through but then fall short. … We wait for a response, but it only comes a year later, all while prices keep going up. It’s catastrophic for public finances.”
Marchand also said cities should co-operate more closely with developers to speed up construction and address the housing crisis.
“We often hear that if cities partner with developers, it means we’re in bed with them. But that has nothing to do with it,” he said. “We need developers to build our cities.”
Both mayors also addressed homelessness, with Marchand calling on all provincial parties in this fall’s election to commit to ending the crisis across Quebec.
Martinez Ferrada, who has made the crisis her top priority since taking office, said it’s important to frame the issue not as a scourge but rather as a humanitarian crisis that everyone has a role in solving.
All levels of government together have never invested as much in the issue as they do today, she said, yet the number of unhoused people keeps climbing.
“That means what we’re doing isn’t solving the problem,” she said. “So we really need to ask ourselves how we can shut off the tap.”
Speaking before the two mayors, Chantal Rouleau, the provincial minister for the Montreal region, said she feels new premier Christine Fréchette understands their concerns.
Rouleau noted Fréchette views Montreal as a priority and wants the province to be a better partner.
“That means not only being present, but being able to accompany, support and above all, accelerate,” she added. “Because some things do take time, but we need to shorten those timelines.”
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