More funding for homeless shelters, public transit among Montreal mayor’s wishlist on eve of provincial election call

Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada released her administration’s wishlist and called on the next Quebec government to build a “new partnership” with the city Wednesday, a day before the provincial elections were expected to be officially called.

The mayor said the province’s policies should reflect the region’s significance as the most populous and the economic engine of the province.

“We must put an end to the old narrative that pits Montréal against the regions,” the mayor said, in a press release.

“We need a new partnership with Quebec City, based on a genuine ‘Reflexe Montréal,’ where our metropolis is consulted, where the realities and crises it faces are addressed, and where it has the necessary resources to fully play its role in serving all of Quebec,” Martinez Ferrada added.

Martinez Ferrada called for the next government to invest in solving the homelessness crisis, public safety and infrastructure projects.

Homelessness and housing

With the homelessness crisis worsening in recent years, Martinez Ferrada called it one the most important issues of the election campaign at a press conference Wednesday.

Between 2022 and 2025, the number of people experiencing visible homelessness in Quebec increased by 20 per cent reaching over 12,000. Nearly 5,000 of those were in Montreal alone.

“Everything is a bit linked to that because it has an impact on the sentiment of security,” the mayor said. “It has the impact on the fact that we have to do a more coordinated approach in terms of dealing with (…) the human crisis we have.”

The mayor called for nearly half of the province’s budget to resolve homelessness to be invested in shelter spaces and social housing in the city, including adding 3,200 emergency shelter beds, setting up of three emergency centres specializing in mental health and addiction by next year and building 2,000 transitional housing units.

Public infrastructure

The Montreal mayor also asked for the province to increase investments in water management, road and public transit infrastructure.

Specifically, the City called for modernizing the STM’s aging infrastructure and the development of public transit in the east end of Montreal, demands she has also made on previous occasions.

The mayor said she would also like to see the provincial support in infrastructure for protecting residents from flooding.

Significance of Montreal

Martinez Ferrada also called on the Quebec government to remove measures curbing immigration to Montreal.

She said downtown Montreal had as a special status as an economic and cultural hub which attracts talent and investors to the province.

“In a context of increased competition for investment and talent, Quebec must be able to fully leverage the economic, cultural, scientific, and academic strengths of Greater Montreal,” the City said in a statement.

Quebecers will head to the polls on Oct. 5.