Coderre, Plante vow to improve seniors’ services

Seniors were front and centre on the campaign trail Friday, as both main mayoral candidates promised to better adapt the city to their needs.

Ahead of the UN’s declared International Day of Older Persons, Denis Coderre promised he’ll form a council of elders that will have the means to research and make recommendations to the mayor and executive committee on subjects affecting seniors like getting help for shut-ins, improving safety on public transit and adapting urban plans.

As for Projet Montréal’s Valérie Plante, she promised all métro stations will be universally accessible by 2030, a move that will also help those in wheelchairs, and parents with young children in strollers.

Plante decried that the city has not stuck to its transport plan, adopted in 2008, for 26 stations to be accessible by this year. To date, only 11 métro stations out of 68 are equipped with elevators that allow people to access the underground from street level.

Plante said as mayor, she’ll push for the federal and provincial governments up their contributions so the city can add elevators to four métro stations per year from now until 2030.

The current plan calls for 41 stations to be accessible by 2025.

“We don’t accept that Montrealers have to wait for decades before having a universally accessible métro network,” Plante said in a statement.

We don’t accept that Montrealers have to wait for decades before having a universally accessible métro network.