Legault, Plante find common ground on some issues
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante and Premier François Legault emerged all smiles Friday from their first face-to-face meeting since the Oct 1. provincial election.
“We had fun,” Plante said. “We laughed!”
They both lauded a new “partnership” to develop the east end of Montreal, including building a tramway that would — eventually — run into downtown, decontaminate waterfront industrial sites and redesign Notre-Dame St. E.
With renewed determination, both powers would quickly put a committee together to work on a “global” integrated plan for transportation, housing, green space and economic development.
The Quebec government would pitch in $200 million.
“Where we came together was in talking about the potential for economic development in the east end,” Plante told reporters in the foyer of city hall. “We want to speed up Montreal and be more agile, fast and efficient, so we can seize opportunities for economic development, particularly in the east.”
“Montreal is our metropolis,” said Legault, whose party won only two of 27 seats on the island in the provincial election. “For Quebec to be healthy, Montreal has to be healthy . ... Of course Mme. Plante and I can’t agree on everything, but there are several subjects on which we do agree. And we share the will to improve the situation of all Montrealers.”
There were indeed a number of touchy subjects on which the premier and the mayor did not come together.
The proposed métro Pink Line, which Plante said she believed was a large part of what secured her election over Denis Coderre, got a “maybe-one-day” reaction from Legault.
They agreed to continue studying a métro line that would run southwest to northeast Montreal, but Legault admitted he was skeptical and would be looking at alternatives.
“We’ve said the Pink Line would be very expensive, and we don’t know how we would fit it into our plan,” Legault said. “I haven’t changed my position.”
Cannabis was also a sticking point. Legault said he would look into shortages that have hit the government-run pot stores since legalization.
But in order to keep control over the industry and keep cannabis away from children and youths, he would not open up the market to the private sector.
But Legault’s plan to raise the age of consumption to 21 and ban smoking in public places runs counter to the city’s position that cannabis should be restricted just as tobacco is: to those 18 and over, and in designated places only.
In Montreal, under the city’s current rules, it would be legal to smoke cannabis in many public spaces, like parks, however.
“The reality of Montreal is that 60 per cent of people don’t own their own houses,” Plante said. They need a place to smoke pot.
Legault would not commit to making an exception for Montreal, but said vaguely there would be somewhere for renters to smoke.
Finally, Legault was also asked about the ever-contentious issue of religious symbols, in the wake of both Gérard Bouchard and Charles Taylor now expressing disappointment and dismay in his position.
Bouchard and Taylor led the provincial commission that looked into the question of reasonable accommodations in Quebec 10 years ago, and recommended, among other things, that judges, police and prison guards — public servants with the power to put people in jail — be prohibited from wearing religious symbols.
Legault has added teachers to that list, often invoking the Bouchard-Taylor report to justify his position.
Last week, Taylor slammed the Coalition Avenir Québec’s position as dangerous, appalling and divisive.
On Friday, Bouchard said the CAQ’s position, especially regarding teachers, was disappointing and doomed to failure, like the other attempts to legislate a ban that came before it.
At city hall Friday — where a crucifix hangs in the main chamber, one city councillor wears a kippah and two wear crosses — Plante said she would refrain from commenting until she has the bill in hand.
Asked to justify the proposed ban on teachers in light of the criticism by Bouchard and Taylor, Legault said that while the CAQ’s position was originally based on the Bouchard-Taylor report, the current proposal is based on what the majority of Quebecers want.
“I think we have the support of the majority of Quebecers and we will table a bill as soon as possible, most probably next spring,” he said.