Mayoral candidates debate Montreal’s East End

With the next Montreal municipal election just under four weeks away, the mayoral candidates for Projet Montréal and Ensemble Montréal took part in a debate Monday morning to discuss their priorities and projects for the revitalization of the city’s East End.

Hosted by the Chambre de commerce de l’Est de Montréal (CCEM), the debate addressed a number of themes that included the vision for the region, infrastructure, mobility, the economy, the living environment and intergovernmental collaboration. Perhaps the most important infrastructure project for both candidates is the construction of a tramway.

“East Montreal needs someone who can deliver and move the tramway project forward,” said Luc Rabouin, mayoral candidate and leader of Projet Montréal.

“We waited for so long to have a project that we have a consensus regarding this project. Now we have to deliver this project and I have no time to talk about other possibilities, discussions. We just want to deliver this project that is under the responsibility of Mobilité Infra Québec,” Rabouin added.

Soraya Martinez-Ferrada, mayoral candidate and leader of Ensemble Montréal, said, “Absolutely, the key to the development of the East will be transportation.”

Adding, “We need to sit down as soon as possible with Quebec to make sure that we’re getting ourselves the tramway that we want in the East part of Montreal because that’s the key that will develop our city in the next decades.” 

While Jean-Denis Charest the CEO of the Chambre de commerce de l’Est de Montréal, said, “It’s not only to transport people, it’s a big part of it, but it has to serve as a lever to develop and redesign our territory, which means housing projects, which means attracting huge economical project on the land that we have that needs to be redeveloped.”

Rabouin also stressed the importance of addressing housing in the area. 

“Second priority, housing. We want to be sure that the development of the East of Montreal is for the people who live in the East of Montreal,” said Rabouin.

Martinez-Ferrada highlighted the need to bring together all three levels of government to develop a plan for the region. 

“We have to make sure that we’re putting in place a leadership that will sit down all levels of government and the actors in the East part of Montreal to have a coordinated plan,” said Martinez-Ferrada.

Charest says that both parties agree on the vision for this part of Montreal, but what is key is the party that will be able to attract the investments necessary to make it happen. 

“The key is going to be who’s better positioned to attract the investment that we need to do so. It’s not a million-dollar challenge that we face; we’re going to need hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars,” he explained.