Valérie Plante and her Speech from the Throne

Valérie Plante’s entourage sold the event to us as a sort of “speech from the Throne” or “address to the nation”.

I can confirm it to you: the outgoing mayor of Montreal did not receive royal assent before appearing at the lectern on Wednesday afternoon. Nor did she transform herself into head of state overnight.

But in terms of atmosphere and decorum, we weren’t far off the mark.

In the large hall of town hall, Valérie Plante delivered a speech lasting around fifteen minutes, written to the nearest comma.

In the background, huge purple velvet curtains gave an even more solemn appearance to his speech.

His entire court was assembled, or almost.

The majority of Projet Montréal elected officials were in the room, along with several dignitaries. They applauded Valérie Plante wildly when she left the room.

Like a governor general, she slipped away without answering journalists’ questions – a role she left to the leader of the opposition, Aref Salem.

So much for the form.

As for the merits, Valérie Plante’s team had not oversold the case.

The mayor’s speech, in this opulent city hall renovated at a cost of 211 million, indeed resembled a speech from the Throne.

As we see at the opening of each parliamentary session in Ottawa, the mayor wanted to present the priorities of her administration for the next year.

Or more precisely: for the 300 days he has left at the head of the metropolis.

There was something reheated there, a dose of self-congratulation and some rather vague commitments.

But Valérie Plante also made some promises that she is committed to carrying out, or at least putting into motion, by the end of her second and final mandate, on November 2.

We might as well say: in the very short term.

First there is the category: “But why did you wait until the eighth year of your mandate to announce this, Madam Mayor? »

In this box are the cleanliness and site management files. Two Achilles heels of his administration since 2017.

While praising the “massive investments” made by the City in this area, the mayor recognized that Montrealers “expect more”. A “major cleaning chore” and an “awareness campaign” will be launched in the spring.

We will have to see to what extent the City will succeed in setting an example to unruly citizens. This is far from obvious, given Montreal’s track record in this area.

But at least the problem is – finally – named.

Valérie Plante also mentioned the ugliness and dirt caused by the countless construction sites. Over the next few months, the dressing and management of obstacles will be prioritized.

Montrealers are just waiting to be convinced.

Because I remind you: the Plante administration has been promising for years to tackle this recurring problem. First with its “construction site charter” of 2021, then with its “construction site summit” of 2023¹. So many reforms which have still not borne the expected results.

Another commitment in the same vein: that of adapting the City’s cleaning and snow removal practices to increasingly unpredictable seasonal changes.

We will have to learn to “do both at the same time”, recognizes the mayor. This will require instilling – or imposing – new ways of doing things on the City’s blue-collar workers and subcontractors.

The recent example of dozens of flower beds vandalized by snow removal cowboys in Rosemont shows that there is still a long way to go.².

There is now the category of more concrete commitments.

Here they are in bursts:

Valérie Plante will please the promoters with this one. The permitted densities will be “increased” in the mega-project to redevelop the Bridge-Bonaventure sector, she said. The City has so far envisaged a total of 7,600 housing units, while the builders would rather like to erect between 12,000 and 15,000. That leaves a good margin.

In terms of road safety, the mayor promises to finish the security work started around schools. Seventeen Montreal establishments are still in 50 km/h zones, and all limits will soon be lowered to 30 or 40 km/h, she said.

The fight against Airbnb will intensify. Without going into details, Valérie Plante recognized that the efforts made by the City and the Quebec government to curb illegal short-term rentals had not borne fruit. Montreal will soon “tighten the screw”. To be continued.

In another issue that is dragging on, that of Voyageur Island, there will be movement in “the coming days”. After years of waiting and an aborted call for tenders, the identity of the partner who will build at least 700 housing units on this nerve center will be announced shortly.

The mayor has finally committed to launching a second phase of construction of modular housing for the homeless by the end of her mandate. The first 60 housing units intended for them should be delivered next spring on land belonging to the City.

It’s a fairly broad range of promises that Valérie Plante made on Wednesday, even if it was all thin in terms of figures and precise deadlines.

What appears clear, however, is that these commitments will bind the next head of Projet Montréal, to whom Valérie Plante will pass her scepter in view of the next electoral campaign.

1. Read the column “Messy management of construction sites: Montreal (finally) brings out the heavy artillery”

2. Read the column “Working in Cabochon”