Montrealers call for better funding of public transit

A demonstration calling for better funding for public transit is taking place Saturday at Place des Festivals in Montreal, marking Earth Day. The chosen theme focuses on public transit, as it represents a concrete action that can be taken immediately for the environment. 

This was explained in an interview by Leeloo Vernet of the Common Front for Energy Transition, one of the organizations organizing the demonstration. For public transit to be a real alternative to single-occupancy driving and accessible to all, the provincial government must increase its funding, the activist argues. 

“It would require much more massive public funding than we currently have, not only to maintain the network, but also to modernize it, to improve accessibility, for example, of metro stations, bus accessibility, and to finance social pricing measures,” argues Vernet. 

“What we’re really asking for is a sustainable public service for our public transport networks that would provide quality jobs, but also a quality service accessible to all, not just those who can afford it, who have a bus that passes near their home and who can get on it,” she adds. 

Environmental issues have previously occupied a larger place in sociopolitical debates than they do today. In 2019, the young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg came to demonstrate alongside Quebecers. Half a million of them marched in the streets of Montreal. 

Although a mobilization of this magnitude is not expected, Vernet believes that marching in the streets has an impact. “Demonstrating, yes, it makes sense, because it shows that many of us want this, and above all, it justifies other actions,” she says. “Afterwards, we will be able to say: we tried, we went out into the streets, we tried to tell you, and then you don’t listen to us.”

Vernet emphasizes that there are several ways to take action for the environment. “What we’re seeing right now is that people are mobilizing in many different ways, including citizen blockades, such as those against Stablex, for example,” she says. 

She was referring to the many protesters who gathered in Blainville on a rainy day earlier this month to demonstrate their stance against the proposed expansion of the Stablex plant, which buries hazardous industrial waste, onto land of high ecological value. 

Vernet is aware that some activists are becoming discouraged because they are not being heard. “I can understand that there is a part of the population that is thinking: but what’s the point, because we are not being listened to. It’s serious because it actually shows that dialogue is a bit broken because the government never listens,” she laments. “If the government continues to turn a deaf ear like this, I can understand that there will be other means that will be used more and more.”

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews