Today

PLANTE’S HIGHER ROADWORK TAX FOR ... LESS ROADWORK

2018-20 capital works program: “The city plans to redo 1,000 km of road by 2020.” It adds: “during the 2018-20 period, the city of Montreal expects to invest massively in road infrastructure ... These investments ... aim to eliminate the lack of maintenance of the road network in the next five years.” 2019 budget: “The implementation of this ambitious vision for Montreal requires that we continue investing in our infrastructure. We have a duty to make up for the maintenance deficit, which has been maintained for too long, by giving back to the population infrastructure it can rely on.” Road maintenance deficit: Plante administration hasn’t said. Timeline to overcome deficit: The Plante administration initially said five years; now it doesn’t talk about overcoming the deficit, but says it will reach the “national average” for road deterioration in 10 years. Fact check: After saying the city will overcome ■ the maintenance deficit, the Plante administration announced a week after presenting the 2019 budget it was changing strategy to focus less on repaving and more on redeveloping streetscapes. City is increasing the roadwork ■ tax in 2019 to do less roadwork. Plante now aims to come up to ■ “the national average” for road deterioration in 10 years, and is not talking about eliminating the maintenance deficit.