Denis Coderre unveils action plan

Emphasis on new schools, transit

The city of Montreal will focus on an integrated public transport system, among other things, as part of its action plan to attract people to downtown Montreal.

Other priorities including creating schools and housing for families in the downtown area, stimulating employment in the area and opening up the sections of the city that are connected to the St. Lawrence River to make the waterway more accessible.

The action plan was announced in June 2016.

On Monday afternoon, Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre unveiled the full plan of action at the Belvedere on Mount Royal.

He said the city plans to have various agencies work together to make downtown as accessible as possible.

The action plan notes that more than one million people travel to downtown Montreal every day. “Our goal is to increase daily trips by public transit to downtown by 100,000 (people) by 2030,” said Richard Bergeron, the city councillor for the St-Jacques district and executive committee member in charge of the action plan. Bergeron was also present at the news conference.

Municipal opposition parties have yet to comment on the action plan.

Coderre stressed the importance of the Réseau électrique métropolitain, or the light rail transit line, which is scheduled to begin service in 2020.

“The RTM will play an important role,” Coderre said.

Three of the 27 REM stations will be in downtown Montreal, and will be adjacent to metro stations already in place — at Bonaventure on the orange line, at McGill on the green line and at Édouard-Montpetit on the blue line.

This initiative, in tangent with the current modes of transportation already in place, will “unclog ” the area, especially in places with a high volume of students, Coderre said. He noted that more than 300,000 people work downtown.

The city also plans to develop “sustainable mobility hubs,” where bicycles, Bixis, taxis, self-service and car-sharing vehicles would be more accessible around certain metro stations and in areas with fewer public transport options. Griffintown, Cité du Multimédia and Ste-Marie will be prioritized for these developments.

A rapid bus transit service is planned for Pie-IX Blvd. by 2022. Azur metro cars will continue to be commissioned, according to the action plan.

Another goal is to increase the density of Montreal’s city centre by encouraging families to move there.

The city plans to build one high school and four elementary schools in the downtown area by 2030. Two of the elementary schools — one in the Peter-McGill district and one in Griffintown — will be built within five years.

One thousand housing units with three or more bedrooms will be added to the downtown sector within 10 years, according to the plan, which states “a significant proportion will be affordable for a family buying a property for the first time.”

The city plans to increase downtown Montreal’s population by 50,000 people by 2030 and have 3,000 new households with children in the downtown area within 10 years.

At the same time, the city plans to make sure that 60 per cent of downtown buildings in the metropolitan area are offices, and increase the proportion of jobs in the downtown core to 25 per cent in the Montreal metropolitan area.

Also, by 2025, the city plans to begin redeveloping entry points to the city around Square Papineau— Pied-du-Courant and Peel Basin– Bridge-Wellington. This would allow “downtown to be opened up to the river,” the plan reads.