Plante pledges to `relaunch' the city in 500 days
Projet Montréal plan includes more space for cyclists and pedestrians
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante says her Projet Montréal administration can “relaunch” Montreal in the next 500 days.
“The countdown begins today,” she said in a speech to close her party's virtual two-day convention on Sunday ahead of the Nov. 7 municipal election, which is in just over 200 days. “Five hundred days is the time that a Projet Montréal administration needs to give the metropolis back its momentum.”
Projet Montréal members also revised the party program at the convention. They went in-camera on Saturday to discuss and adopt a new party position in favour of launching a pilot project to remove the weapons of a portion of Montreal police officers, leaving special brigades armed with guns.
Party members also voted 80 per cent in favour of instituting a “mileage tax” on cars Saturday. The measure would entail taxing motorists for the distance they travel by car. The party says it wants to lobby the Quebec government to have the measure apply across the Greater Montreal region.
Plante listed several projects that her administration would present or complete in the next 500 days, including the “largest housing construction” program of the past five years, the launch of the long-awaited métro Blue Line extension in the east end, the launch of the REM de l'est project — which isn't a municipal project — and presenting the plans for a tramway toward Lachine. The latter project, she said, is her party's proposed “Pink Line” from the 2017 election campaign.
“In 500 days, we're going to rewrite together the new urban and mobility plan of Montreal,” Plante said. “It'll be the largest exercise of co-creation in terms of public policy in the history of the city of Montreal that will guide the next five years of the metropolis.”
Montreal's original urban plan in 1992, introduced by Jean Doré's Montreal Citizens' Movement, went through multiple rounds of public consultations over several years.
“It takes Projet Montréal to get the Pink Line to Lachine,” Plante said. “It takes Projet Montréal to make sure the REM de l'est gets done . ... It takes Projet Montréal to connect the Orange Line toward the REM Bois-franc station. And it took Projet Montréal to finally order 300 (public transit) buses.”
For the relaunch of downtown, Plante said more space would be created “for everyone, notably pedestrians and cyclists.”
“Four years ago, Montrealers made the choice to turn their backs on the status quo and to trust a team that offered a different vision for the metropolis,” Plante said of her defeat of Denis Coderre in 2017. “And it's again the choice that will be offered to us in November. We can decide to advance, progress or we can just stand still. And let's be honest. When all the big cities of the world decide to advance, if we decide to stand still, inevitably Montreal will have stepped back. ... The status quo is not an option.”