Quebec Budget: City of Montreal wanted more for transportation and housing

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said she’s disappointed by the lack of investment towards transportation and housing in Quebec’s latest budget.

“We know that there are many crises in Montreal and they’re quite interconnected,” she explained on Wednesday. “The fact that there are so many vulnerable people and it’s directly connected to the housing crisis.”

Quebec’s finance minister Eric Girard announced the $158-billion budget with an $11-billion deficit on Tuesday.

The budget calls for $8.8 billion in new spending over five years, with almost $5 billion going towards health and education.

Plante explained how public transit is crucial for Montrealers and how there needs to be more options if you want to leave your car at home.

“If we want to have more ridership and bring in more money, there has to be investment in taking care of the existing network. The message that the government is sending worries me so, so much. And I’m not the only one.”

The Montreal Mayor also said that there needs to be more investments and less cuts.

She hopes that Minister Girard will sit down with the cities within the metropolitan area to discuss possible solutions.

“Let’s not wait like last year, when it was just before our budget. It put us in such a difficult position. We want to give predictability. We want to be in a proactive mode.”