ONE-ON-ONE, ONE YEAR LATER
In a wide-ranging interview with the Montreal Gazette, the mayor discusses the ups and downs of her first 12 months in office and what Montrealers can expect in the next 1,100 days of her mandate. Andy Riga reports on how she has grown into the job.
By Valérie Plante’s own admission, she learned a lesson the hard way early on: not to ‘play the mayor.’ And she has struggled to find a work-life balance. But reflecting on her first 12 months in office, she also tells Andy Riga she’s proud of what she’s accomplished so far.
T’es bonne! Fière de toi! You rock! T’es capable!
Mayor Valérie Plante looks down at the handwritten inspirational sticky notes that mark her spot at the round wood table.
“It has been a long week and I’m tired — my team left these to boost my energy,” a laughing Plante tells a reporter as she sits down for a Friday afternoon interview in her second-floor, corner office at Montreal city hall.
It has been a long year since she and her Projet Montréal party came to power in November 2017. “It feels more like three years,” she says.
Montreal’s boisterous mayor seems uncharacteristically lethargic after a week that included a twoday council meeting, six press conferences and a tricky balancing act as she rolled out city hall’s red carpet for Premier François Legault, her polar opposite on many issues but a crucial potential partner.
Despite the fatigue, there are flashes of her trademark enthusiasm and self-confidence, especially when she discusses mobility and the métro Pink Line she covets.
But, chastened and bruised by controversies (a surprise tax hike, the Mount Royal car ban and last winter’s icy sidewalks), Plante has become more cautious as she has grown into the job.
She is loathe to talk about the divisive issue of religious symbols in the civil service, for example. And she seems wary of ruffling feathers by banning pollution-spewing wood-burning stoves used to make Montreal’s beloved bagels.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Montreal Gazette, Plante discusses the ups and downs of Year One and what Montrealers can expect in the next 1,100 days of her mandate.
HIGH POINTS
Asked to list her high points, Plante immediately points to the purchase of 300 hybrid city buses two months after she came to power (and due to start arriving in 2020). She’s proud she proved wrong the critics who said she “was not going to do anything ” and had no sway with the provincial government, which is footing part of the bill. Measures that allowed carsharing to expand to more neighbourhoods are also on her list.
So is the closing of Mount Royal to through traffic as part of a fivemonth pilot project that elicited a backlash. Plante says she regrets the way news of the plan came out — in dribs and drabs before the details and rationale were explained. “I wish I would have been able to present it when I was ready, but ultimately I’m very proud of that. Safety for all road users is important for us and it’s also important to protect the green spaces we have.”
LOW POINT
Plante doesn’t hesitate. It came in January and involved her first budget, one that many Montrealers felt betrayed Plante’s promise not to raise taxes above inflation. “It was necessary to make those investments but the way I communicated that didn’t work out for
the population or for me.” At the time, Plante took a hard line, denying she had gone back on her word and arguing extra cash invested in water infrastructure shouldn’t be counted. A day later, she acknowledged she had poorly explained the justification for the tax hike.
“The way I communicated was far from who I am,” she now says. “That is probably why people were so upset. They were wondering a bit, ‘Hmm, that’s not the Valérie I saw during the campaign or that I voted for. The way she talks doesn’t resonate this time.’ ” What has changed since then? “I went back to who I am. This is not a role-play. I don’t ‘play the mayor,’ I don’t put on my mayor suit in the morning and I’m somebody different when I get home. And in that specific period (the budget), it’s almost like there were two different people. And I don’t want that to happen again.”
WORK-LIFE BALANCE
Plante’s biggest challenge in Year 1 was behind the scenes: her job’s impact on her home life (she’s married, with sons age 12 and 15). “How do you explain to your family that you’re never going to be home?” She says the first few months were especially difficult because of the rush to put together her first budget and then dealing with the “bad reception from the public to that budget.” A constant stream of public events also ate into time she would normally spend at home and doing sports (she runs, skis and practises yoga).
Plante says she eventually “adjusted and found balance. With my team, we decided that I always have a day off during the weekend. And I’ve decided to go to fewer events and stay longer because I want to feel the event I’m attending, I want to talk to people. I’m trying to do less for more quality time.” That has caused some controversy. Eyebrows were raised when she skipped the Canada Day parade after participating in St-Jean-Baptiste festivities. Plante says she understands why some were disappointed but “my kids were asking for a break, a day off, so I went out of town and we had a campfire and it was cool.” She adds: “I’m a proud Canadian” and “next year, I’ll be there.”
PROMISES
Projet’s election platform contained 18 promises for Year One and Plante says 16 have been fulfilled (though a closer look indicates one of the 16 is only partially accomplished). “It was nice to look back and realize all the things we actually accomplished,” she says. “It’s encouraging and it shows the maturity of our administration.”
One pledge still in the works: introducing an online-permit
system for ordering and paying for standard permits such as for fences and pools (due in 2019). A second one: designating 20 per cent of new residential real estate developments to family housing with three or more bedrooms (due in 2019).
A third promise is half-fulfilled. Plante launched a “mobility squad” to solve traffic problems related to roadwork but has yet to create the promised separate “construction brigade,” responsible for “conducting surprise visits on city construction sites to ensure the quality of work.” The city says the mobility squad is performing some of the brigade’s tasks, and the two functions may be combined.
SNOW
Last winter, the Plante administration and some boroughs were criticized for slow snow removal and shoddy sidewalk ice-clearing. Is the city ready for the coming winter? Yes, Plante says. “We have ordered lots of salt” and “we’ve talked to all the boroughs so that when we say, ‘Put salt!’ everybody does it.” Eight ice-crushers — tractors fitted with metal rotors with spikes — have been purchased to deal with sidewalks. And, to avoid delays, the city has sought provincial authorization in advance for extra snow dumps should the need arise.
MOUNT ROYAL
Plante does not hide the fact that she would personally like to see through traffic banned on the mountain. “It kind of breaks my heart” that the pilot project is over and cars are again crossing Mount Royal, she says. Does that mean she has already made up her mind about the future of Camillien-Houde Way/Remembrance Rd.? “Oh no, absolutely not,” she says. “I know what I’d prefer but I really want to do this step by step.”
This month, the Office de consultation publique de Montréal, an independent city agency, will consult the public. The OCPM’s final report is due in early 2019. The city will wait for those conclusions before deciding how to proceed.
Those who fear Projet will completely ban cars from Mount Royal are mistaken, Plante says. In fact, Plante, who lives in Rosemont, about four kilometres from Mount Royal Park, sometimes drives there herself. “We will never close the access — that is not the point in the short term or even in the long term. I take the car to ski on the mountain. I like the fact that tourists in a bus park up the hill and walk to the chalet.”
THE PINK LINE
Premier François Legault, whose transport promises largely focus on expanding roadways, says Plante’s Pink Line — a new 29-station métro line linking Montreal North, downtown and Lachine — is too expensive. Early estimates pegged the price tag at $6 billion. He’s left a tiny opening, saying if a much cheaper alternative such as one above ground can be built, he would consider it.
Plante is undeterred. The Pink Line “isn’t some crazy idea,” says Plante, who promised to start work on it in a second mandate. She says she’ll look at other options but “there’s a reason why there’s a métro — it goes fast and it carries a lot of people.” The new line would serve densely populated areas and take pressure off the overcrowded Orange Line, she says.
“I respect M. Legault, he got elected on a particular mandate,” she says. “I got elected on a platform as well. I will bring the arguments to him. I’m confident Montrealers will be behind me on this. That’s what they tell me. I walk down the street and they tell me, ‘Don’t give up on the Pink Line!’ and I’m, like, ‘I’m not going to give up!’ ”
I’ve decided to go to fewer events and stay longer because I want to feel the event I am attending ... to talk to people. I’m trying to do less for more quality time.
RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS
Legault says he wants to ban public servants in authority positions, including city police officers, from wearing religious symbols on the job. Plante is on the record as favouring allowing cops to wear such garb. But she says she won’t discuss the issue again until the Coalition Avenir Québec government presents its draft law. She doesn’t want to fall into “the two categories” in the polarizing debate — “you’re either a traitor to the nation or you’re racist,” she says. “It’s just too loaded right now.” However, she is quick to add: “Montreal is a city of inclusion. I’m proud that we are welcoming. We receive 75 per cent of new immigrants and that has been good for us. This is why we’re Montreal — because of the contributions of so many communities.” And she says she “will always fight for Montrealers to have access to services. Whatever you wear, you should be able to grab a book at the library, get on the bus, go and skate at the arena.”
BAGELS
Jean-François Parenteau of Montreal’s executive committee last month signalled that the city will stop tolerating harmful air pollution from wood-burning bagel shops, pizzerias and Portuguese grilled-chicken restaurants.
But Plante is circumspect when asked about the issue. “I’m really attached to our food diversity. It’s one of the reasons people love Montreal — it’s a foodie city. And a lot of those restaurants were created by immigrant families bringing their recipes and their cultures, which is something I celebrate.” She says “it’s not easy” for those living nearby, who have for years complained about the pollution. “But I’m not planning on regulating (commercial) wood ovens right now.”
Instead, she says the city is studying the situation and talking to business owners about the possibility of switching to natural gas. “Maybe we can come up with, if we decide to go forward, some kind of program to help them do the transition. But I’m not saying ‘OK, done, it’s going to be over.’ ”
NEXT THREE YEARS
Montreal unveils its 2019 budget on Nov. 8. What’s in store for residential property owners? “I can assure you that the taxes will not go above inflation,” Plante says. Montreal’s inflation rate is expected to be 1.72 per cent in 2019, the Conference Board of Canada says.
What else should Montrealers expect in Years 2, 3 and 4? “Definitely a continuation because I’m far from being done with mobility,” Plante says. That means expanding the work of the “mobility squad” and working on the Pink Line and a tramway for Montreal’s east end. And Plante says she will continue to “nurture” Montreal’s diversity and its reputation as a “good city to live in, a welcoming, creative, innovative city. I will continue to fight for Montrealers’ right to be happy in this city.”
Montreal is a city of inclusion. I’m proud that we are welcoming. We receive 75 per cent of new immigrants and that has been good for us.