Conservative leader again accuses Montreal mayor of ‘incompetence’
Posted January 23, 2024 11:18 am.
Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has again treated Valérie Plante of “incompetent” on social media, after the Montreal mayor attended Justin Trudeau’s cabinet retreat.
“After saying that there is no link between the municipalities and the federal government, the mayor of Montreal attends Trudeau’s cabinet meeting. Another incompetent,” Poilievre wrote on X.
The head of the Conservatives reiterated that his “common sense plan” will make it possible to provide additional funds to cities that allow more construction “like Trois-Rivières and Saguenay” and to penalize those that slow it down.
In another post, he shared an article from the Journal de Montréal dating from May that reported Plante was requesting funds from the provincial and federal governments to finance the construction of social housing.
“What incompetence,” he wrote. “One day she said that municipal housing has nothing to do with the federal government. Two days later, she said the exact opposite.”
Poilievre made headlines last week by calling the mayors of Montreal and Quebec, Plante and Bruno Marchand, incompetent, accusing the Liberal government of paying “billions” to these mayors despite what he describes as a “massive drop in construction in Quebec.”
Speaking briefly to journalists on her way to the meeting in Montreal, Mayor Plante said she had been invited to “talk about the reality of the housing crisis” in her city and in Quebec. She refused to answer questions.
Last week, Plante replied to Poilievre that “common sense” is also to “understand that in Quebec, federal funding for housing does NOT go through the cities.” Mayor Marchand, for his part, accused him of engaging in “petty politics.”
In Quebec, legislative provisions prevent the federal government from paying money directly to cities without having first concluded an agreement with the provincial government. That said, cities still receive federal funds.
Shortly before the Conservative leader’s latest social network post, the federal minister of housing, Sean Fraser, said he was outraged by the insults uttered in recent days.
“It’s incredible for a federal politician to declare that another person, a mayor, is incompetent. This is not appropriate.”
Fraser indicated he had learned “many lessons” from discussions with the mayor during the retreat in order to find “appropriate” and “unique” solutions to the housing crisis.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
