Editorial opinion by: Roger-Luc Chayer (Image: generated by AI – Gay Globe)
For years, it has been evident that the City of Montreal, under the leadership of its mayor Valérie Plante, has made the decision to disrupt our streets and boulevards for often questionable reasons. This includes projects that tear up main arteries, changes to the direction of traffic on traditionally direct routes to downtown, and choices with serious economic repercussions.
A city functions like a human heart: the downtown is its heart, the highways and major boulevards act as arteries, while the streets and alleys serve as veins. A body can only live and grow if blood circulation is fluid and if vital organs, like the brain, receive enough oxygen.
Today, Montreal, under the Plante administration, is facing a major crisis. In reality, the metropolis is in intensive care, a victim of the heart attack caused by Projet Montréal. And Valérie Plante persists, going so far as to rot what remains of the city, threatening to suffocate it until its last breath.
The role of elected officials in any major city
Yet, no one voted for elected officials or mayors who would knowingly try to suffocate the city and break its economy. The role of elected officials is to promote economic growth and prosperity for cities and their inhabitants. It is by creating the conditions for a dynamic economy and generating the necessary wealth that one can then, and only then, make decisions regarding traffic management, while avoiding harm to the city.
The administration of Valérie Plante is doing the opposite. While, just before she came to power, Montreal was experiencing one of the most prosperous periods in its history, she decided to create artificial traffic jams, narrow streets, block certain arteries, and turn essential secondary circulation lanes into pseudo “green alleys.” These transformations benefit only a few property owners, who use them as private land for personal use. In short, Valérie Plante caused a heart attack in Montreal, leaving its urban heart gravely ill.
Effects on the economy
After more than seven years in power, Montreal is regressing on several fronts. The city is being deserted by its residents, who choose to leave, no longer finding a satisfactory quality of life. Transport companies are raising delivery fees due to street closures and the inability to maintain smooth traffic flow, the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) is recording record deficits and considering cutting services to citizens in an attempt to limit losses. Meanwhile, some boroughs are considering closing libraries and arenas due to insufficient funding from the central city to maintain operations. At the same time, Montreal sinks deeper into colossal deficits, with no end in sight.
To mitigate the devastating effects of the Plante administration and somewhat mask the critical state of the city, thousands of construction permits for condos are being issued. Towers are springing up everywhere, artificially generating municipal tax revenue that does nothing to solve the structural problems. The real issue lies at the « brain » of the city, while its « heart » continues to beat artificially.
Housing crisis, unprecedented poverty, record homelessness, tent camps resembling slums in underprivileged countries, and failing security: everything is getting worse. Trudeau Airport even canceled its contract with the Montreal police, handing it over to the Sûreté du Québec. In Ville-Marie, police officers have been replaced by private security guards. Nothing works, and yet, Valérie Plante seems determined to push these disastrous policies even further.
In the end, what will remain of Montreal by the next election?
The city is broken, and it’s not just the downtown that is suffering. To the north, the closure of Henri-Bourassa Boulevard has caused endless traffic jams between the Montreal-North borough and the metro at Ahuntsic. To the east and west, residents are turning to the suburbs, unable to access downtown. Meanwhile, the scars left by past street closures, like Parc, Saint-Hubert, Saint-Denis, and many others, have still not healed, as evidenced by the numerous business bankruptcies.
In 2025, in Montreal’s Gay Village, Sainte-Catherine Street will be torn up as well, just like the western part of it downtown, with construction that will drag on for years. This will be a heavy blow to what remains of the local commercial LGBT community. Despite all the protests, the Plante machine persists, claiming there have been public consultations (where, when, how?). These works are likely to crush what little dignity remains in a Village already plagued by the most severe social and economic issues.
November 2025. Municipal election in Montreal.
Who will have the courage to run for mayor to replace Valérie Plante and inherit a city where only a soul will remain, as its heart will have ceased to beat? The candidates will need to be courageous…