Saint-Roch “is not hell on Earth”, defends Marchand

“Should we find solutions? The answer is yes. But to say that Saint-Roch is burning is to harm Saint-Roch,” refuted Mayor Marchand on Monday.

After almost a week of seeing the downtown district hit the headlines, he took advantage of his first media outing back from the holiday break to react to the crumbling business environment and the successive closures of stores Benjo and La Cordée.

Thursday, the leader of the official opposition at city hall, Claude Villeneuve, did not fail to accuse the mayor and his administration of not paying attention to the “economic slump” of the commercial artery of the popular district .

Bruno Marchand denounced his opponent’s alarmist statements.

“People need to stop saying it’s hell on Earth.”

— Bruno Marchand, mayor of Quebec

Conveying the idea that Saint-Roch is burning is, he says, “a serious error”. “There is a limit to exaggerating and scaring the world. By crying wolf, we’re not helping anyone,” added the mayor, who will also have Claude Villeneuve as his opponent in the race for mayor in the next elections, as The Sun reported exclusively on Monday.

“More and better” to do

Far from denying a certain commercial decline, Bruno Marchand admitted that it will be necessary to do “more” and “better” to straighten out rue Saint-Joseph. But if some businesses are “struggling”, others are doing “very well”, he adds.

Just like his right-hand man, Pierre-Luc Lachance, municipal councilor of Saint-Roch—Saint-Sauveur, the mayor also promises “concrete actions” to come in the coming weeks.

Cleaning graffiti, an increased police presence and the return of civil servants to offices have already been identified as possible solutions. It is therefore wrong to say that Quebec remains with its arms crossed, the mayor defended.

“We are going to support our traders, we have lots of ideas coming,” he pledged.

“We are going to do what we need to do to ensure that we don’t let Saint-Roch down.”

— Bruno Marchand, mayor of Quebec

Bringing back residents is also part of the desire of the Marchand administration, which promises in the coming weeks “clearer directions” on the development of the Dorchester block proposed by the developer Trudel.

In any case, Mayor Marchand wants to see parking disappear. “Something has to be built. It takes accommodation and it takes a lot of it.”

Saint-Joseph, not the worst

The problems facing the neighborhood go far beyond its borders, he explains, referring to the widespread growth of homelessness and the phenomenon of online commerce.

As proof that the trend is wreaking havoc everywhere, he maintains that even more commercial premises are vacant elsewhere in the city.

In neighborhoods like Saint-Sauveur and Old Quebec, commercial arteries have a vacancy rate of more than 20%, while that of Saint-Joseph Street was around 13.7% in 2024.

To compete with large online platforms, he says he wants to create a distinctive “experience” on high streets to attract consumers.

The Marchand administration, however, denies that these commercial difficulties could be linked to excessively high taxes.

“Taxes are too broad-minded to say that it is the fault of taxes,” he refutes, recognizing however that the price of rent imposed by developers is sometimes high.

“Mobilization” and fight against Airbnb as solutions

In reaction to the mayor’s exit, the three opposition parties came up with their own remedy to alleviate the ills of the Saint-Roch district.

We must first recognize the problem and call for “mobilization,” urges the leader of the official opposition. Claude Villeneuve is calling in particular for rapid improvement and an improved event offer.

He brushes aside the argument of online commerce to explain the difficulties of rue Saint-Joseph. “This reality also exists for Maguire Street and 3rd Avenue,” which, however, are doing better, he notes.

“It’s not Saint-Roch that’s burning, it’s the commercial arteries of the entire city center. There are clearly particular difficulties in the city center.”

— Claude Villeneuve, leader of the official opposition

At Équipe Priorité Québec, leader Patrick Paquet, for his part, accuses the Marchand administration of turning a “deaf ear” to the concerns of merchants and of taxing them more than many other Canadian cities.

Jackie Smith, head of Transition Québec, sees in the current situation the consequences of short-term rentals like Airbnb, which have been permitted on a large scale in the city center for several years.

“To reverse the trend, we must tighten the screws on Airbnbs and bring residents back around commercial arteries,” asks the Limoilou councilor, also seeing it as a way to respond to the housing crisis.