Quebec City Hall: Claude Villeneuve harshly criticizes Bruno Marchand’s record

The leader of the official opposition strongly criticized the record of Mayor Bruno Marchand, concluding that he has no major achievements, apart from active mobility and cycle paths, which according to him are “poorly constructed”, he image of a new cycle path which has been developed in Beauport.

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Claude Villeneuve met with the media Monday morning on rue du Cénacle, in Beauport, where the City of Quebec has installed a bike lane that is causing people to talk. The track is dotted with valleys which have been created at each entrance to the courtyard. “We end up with a poorly designed cycle lane, for a corridor which should be used to connect the secondary school which is here,” lamented the elected official.

The mayor’s achievements over the past three years can be summed up in the “all-out defense of active mobility”, according to Claude Villeneuve. “But there is a desire to do it which is messy, hasty, which does not produce results.” He claims that Mr. Marchand did not campaign last time “by putting bicycles everywhere on his signs.”

According to Mr. Villeneuve, in his assessment, the mayor counted on achievements that were started by the previous administration. He cites the biomethanization center, the road safety strategy, the Gabrielle-Roy library, the police headquarters. “It’s a lot of the things that were left to him as gifts by the former mayor.”

Road safety

As for the investments announced in road safety, revealed by The Journal At the end of the week, Mr. Villeneuve puts a downside. We should not reproduce everywhere what was done at the Berges school, he emphasizes, since parents remain dissatisfied. Remember that the vice-president of the executive committee responsible for road safety, Pierre-Luc Lachance, said that certain elements, but not all, could be reproduced elsewhere.

Tramway

On the claim of Mayor Marchand, who claimed to be the only mayor to have campaigned on the tramway, Claude Villeneuve differs in opinion. “We heard Bruno Marchand in 2021 put conditions on the tram, distance himself from the tram, say that he would not build the tram if there was no social acceptability, say that he would make improvements to the tram “, he recalled.

Furthermore, Claude Villeneuve served “a warning” to the unelected leader of the second opposition, Patrick Paquet, who according to him spreads lies, in particular on votes which were held in council. “We have a political actor who is not an elected official who is spreading false information about the work of elected officials from the Quebec City Council,” he laments. I invite him to use the generous remuneration he receives to do his work for the City, to provide service to citizens. […] rather than parasitizing the municipal debate by spreading lies.”

In 2022, Mr. Paquet’s salary was $123,000.