An E-gregious waste of public resources
Electric race cars will be speeding through downtown streets at over 200 kilometres per hour this weekend, undoubtedly providing some thrilling moments for motorsport fans.
It should be a good time, and I hope the ePrix is well-attended.
I may even attend myself — though no city councillor has offered me free tickets.
Relishing this endless stream of subsidized entertainment, however, isn’t likely to temper my overtaxed Montrealer’s cynicism about this billion-dollar 375th year.
As innovative as the Formula E circuit seems, stories from behind the scenes of Montreal’s event provide yet more examples of Mayor Denis Coderre’s administration showing crass disregard for public resources without shame or subtlety.
In what one opposition adviser called a throwback to the Duplessis era, executive committee member Richard Bergeron was spotted publicly distributing free Formula E tickets last week to constituents affected by race-related road closures, which are extensive (Duplessis, it was famously rumoured, distributed refrigerators and other gifts to voters).
A city spokesperson said Bergeron was doing “his job as a councillor,” and he was attempting to make a particular effort to reach “allophone” citizens who “didn’t have all the information.”
At least 4,000 free tickets are being given to citizens; promoter Evenko is selling two-day passes for up to $212.
Not only was there no acknowledgment that Bergeron’s gifting was inappropriate, but the Coderre administration’s position is essentially that this behaviour is excusable because it was providing some sort of assistance to an unidentified swath of ethnics too out-of-touch to grasp basic logistics.
Barely scratching the surface, it’s clear the city has bungled the information campaign on serious logistical issues for businesses, conducted inappropriate outreach with residents, and, for good measure, insulted minority citizens whose first language isn’t French.
“How to attempt to buy social peace three months before elections,” wrote Montrealer Nathalie Castaing on Twitter after receiving two free ePrix tickets and two STM gift cards. “Pathetic!”
It’s quite the opus of incompetence so far, but there’s more. The cost of the Formula E race is of course another serious concern.
At least $24 million will be spent to host the event while several other cities on the circuit spent no significant amount of public money, responsibly relying on private sponsorships.
The race organizer — Montréal, c’est électrique — is a new, city-subsidized non-profit with no staff listed on its rudimentary website, no other public activities planned and a vague stated mission to promote electric transport.
Again, hopefully the event is a success. But if it isn’t, the city of Montreal is of course guaranteeing the électrique group’s $10-million loan.
“Every city has a different business model,” another city spokesperson told reporters. And Montreal evidently has none.
The event is a response to no perceptible consumer demand, only the whims of a mayor with a dream and a voracious appetite for spending seemingly endless amounts of public money (how sharp will tax increases be in 2018?).
For this event and others related to Montreal’s 375th anniversary, it seems when Coderre is faced with a choice between spending more money or less money, this ’90s-era spendthrift liberal caricature of a mayor consistently opts for opulence, be it with the Fleuve-Montagne walkway or granite stumps.
After hearing concerns from business owners and residents, along with completely rational critiques from the opposition and media, Coderre “set the record straight” Tuesday.
On Bergeron personally handing out tickets to constituents less than four months before the election, the mayor actually congratulated him on a “colossal job” well done. Repeating similar comments from this past weekend about Montreal being “a player” once again, Coderre applauded his own “audacious” plans to put the city “back on the map.”
Coderre’s doublespeak is disorienting to citizens. Once this celebratory year is over, Montrealers, I would suspect, won’t feel like “players,” but played by a reckless municipal government.