Chinatown hosts all-party debate ahead of Montreal elections

Montreal’s Chinatown took center stage Saturday as candidates from all parties gathered to outline their priorities for the historic district.

Facilitated by Chinese translators, the community debate enabled residents to engage directly with candidates and raise concerns —including social housing, cohabitation, environment, heritage preservation, and economic development.

“This election, I think one issue that will impact not only the Chinatown area, but the whole of Montreal will be housing issues,” said Nicolas Linh, member of Chinatown Youth.

The event was hosted by Montreal Chinatown Round Table (MCRT) and the Table de concertation du Faubourg St. Laurent.

Four municipal candidates took part in the discussion to hear directly from residents and share their platforms: Claude Pinard from Ensemble Montréal, Sergio Da Silva from Transition Montréal, Robert Beaudry from Projet Montréal, and Jean-Pierre Khouzam from Futur Montréal.

“This is the first time we’ve done it in this format, like a round table format rather than the traditional, you know, you’ve got the podiums in the front and you’ve got like panel of judges asking the questions,” said Pak-Kei Wong, president of Montreal Chinatown Round Table.

“As we enter the final year of the Chinatown Action Plan 2021–2026 adopted by the City of Montreal, it is important to remind the next administration that the work is far from over,” added Wong. “We ask that the next government continue the work from the first plan and adopt and implement the community proposal to update the Chinatown Action Plan.”

Briant Chang, vice president of the Chinese Association of Montreal, shared his concerns about the future of the Wing building now included in the heritage designation of the institutional core of Chinatown. He hopes that the Wing building will not be transformed into social housing.

“I think that’s particularly disturbing to most of us in the community because first of all we believe there’s more than enough social housing within the parameters of the channel,” said Chang. “There’s about four within a matter of five blocks.”

To help more people vote on Nov. 2, the MCTR will offer rides and support to make sure eligible residents can get to their polling stations.

“It’s really great to see this kind of initiatives where municipal candidates come to speak about the platform and to see the citizens involve themselves in the municipal democracy,” said Cathy Hu, Montrealer. “I involve myself in environment a lot. So, I would like to see the continuing of environment propositions in the city and not a regression.