Closure of La Cordée: “Bruno Marchand watches Saint-Roch burn while playing the harp,” says Claude Villeneuve

For the leader of the opposition in Quebec City, Claude Villeneuve, the year 2025 begins on a very bad note with the closure of the La Cordée store, on Saint-Joseph Street East.

• Also read: Another hard blow for Saint-Roch: closure of La Cordée

“It’s a big disappointment for Saint-Roch. These are big banners that are closing. It also follows several small businesses which have closed,” lamented Mr. Villeneuve during an impromptu press conference Thursday morning.

At the end of last summer, the leader of the opposition counted 19 empty storefronts on Saint-Joseph Street, from Saint-Dominique Street to Langelier Boulevard.

“We will have to redo the count, because clearly, it has gotten worse,” he added.

Mr. Villeneuve believes that Mayor Marchand’s administration is slow to become aware of the difficulties facing the neighborhood and Saint-Joseph Street, in particular.

“We are in denial,” he said.

“At some point you have to be able to name things and here we have a problem. We have a commercial artery which had experienced an incredible rebirth […] and I think it is no exaggeration to speak of a slump which is setting in and which we must fight against.”

He calls for mobilization

A sign that something is wrong, Saint-Joseph Street was not decorated for the holiday season unlike in previous years, noted the leader of the opposition.

“We don’t sense any mobilization or consultation to get there. Basically, I don’t find it exaggerated to use the following image: Bruno Marchand watches Saint-Roch burn while playing the harp. It’s not going well, but we smile, we look away and we act as if nothing happened.”

This situation is totally unacceptable, according to him. Mr. Villeneuve therefore calls for the mobilization of traders and residents. Without claiming to have the miracle solution, the leader of Quebec first proposed the establishment of a compensation program for residents and merchants who could be victims of acts of vandalism.

On his Facebook account, the neighborhood councilor, Pierre-Luc Lachance, also vice-president of the executive committee, reacted by assuring that the City “is working on several initiatives with different community partners which will see the light of day over the coming weeks and over the next few months.”

“There is no single solution. It is the multiplication of actions that will make it possible to obtain results. […] I am fully aware of the challenges facing the neighborhood and the irritants that arise from them. Our priority is to ensure citizens’ feeling of security and to maintain the economic and social fabric,” he mentions, recalling that the City has already announced an increase in police numbers on its territory, particularly in Saint-Roch for 2025 and 2026.