“We’ve known for a week that this heat wave was coming. That we have not planned any contingency plan, I find that frightening,” lamented Tuesday morning the leader of the official opposition, Claude Villeneuve.
Monday, on the eve of the start of a scorching heat wave, Quebec City announced that a little more than a third of its outdoor swimming pools would be open in time to allow citizens to take a dip to cool off. As of June 17, only 13 of Quebec’s 37 municipal bodies of water were ready to welcome swimmers.
With maximum temperatures between 30 and 34°C expected until June 20, the municipal administration “betrays a lack of preparation”, according to the official opposition.
“It’s part of a city’s duties to deal with this kind of situation. We don’t understand why we weren’t able to bring forward the opening by a few days.
Even more so, underlines Chief Villeneuve, that public libraries remain closed for the moment due to the strike, the end of which was announced on Friday. All establishments in the network will be inaccessible until June 26, for reopening the next day, according to regular schedule.
“If we couldn’t open more swimming pools, couldn’t we have opened more libraries?”
— Claude Villeneuve, leader of the official opposition
In an “emergency situation” like the one announced for Quebec and the surrounding area, “emergency management would have been necessary,” argues the municipal representative, “doubtful” of the argument of the end of classes invoked to justify the impossibility of bringing forward the opening of swimming pools due to lack of available young workers.
The mayor of Quebec must address the media before entering the municipal council on Tuesday afternoon.
#Canada
