For Montreal not to be Toronto, we need off-market housing, says QS
Québec solidaire co-spokesperson, Manon Massé/Josie Desmarais/Subway Archives
So that Montreal does not become either Toronto or Vancouver, we must build off-market housing in Montreal, believes the outgoing co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire, Manon Massé, in an interview with Métro. The MNA for Sainte-Marie–Saint-Jacques and her colleague MNA for Saint-Henri–Sainte-Anne, Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, presented Monday the united vision of housing in urban areas before the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM ).
The two supportive MNAs came to present their brief during the OCPM consultation sessions on the development of the Bridge-Bonaventure sector. It’s an opportunity for the left-wing party to present a more comprehensive vision for housing in Quebec, in addition to affirming the importance that the political party attaches to mixed living environments and the presence of public health infrastructure. active and collective transportation.
Do not become Toronto or Vancouver
“Off-market” housing will prevent Montreal from becoming Toronto or Vancouver in terms of rents, defended Manon Massé, concluding the presentation of QS’s brief. The solidarity co-spokesperson was not yet aware of the remarks of the Prime Minister, François Legault, reported by Radio-Canada. He argued that if house prices in Quebec were lower than in Vancouver or Toronto, that meant Quebec was poorer.
“In 2023, treating housing as a consumer good like any other is totally unacceptable,” said Ms. Massé indignantly, asked to react to Mr. Legault’s remarks by Métro. “To say that he does not want Quebec to remain poor is in fact not to recognize that he does not want to raise the minimum wage to more than $15.25,” she continued.
If the elected officials of QS have mainly pleaded for “off-market” housing in Bridge-Bonaventure, they believe that this issue affects the entire metropolis as well as Quebec as a whole.
Use land already acquired
“In this sector, all public and parapublic land must become off-market housing,” said the MP for Saint-Henri–Sainte-Anne, where the majority planned developments are located. “It's the responsibility of Quebec,” added Manon Massé, explaining that the lands of Loto-Quebec and the Canada Lands Company (SIC) “already belong [to Quebecers]”.
Indeed, Loto-Québec and the SIC are two public or parapublic organizations, provincial and federal, which own land in the Bridge-Bonaventure sector. For the two deputies in solidarity, creating off-market housing makes it possible to create housing that belongs to the community, and this, “for the rest of the existence of humanity”, enthused Ms. Massé.
Building Communities
Active transportation infrastructure must also be added to any project in Bridge-Bonaventure, believe the two MPs from Montreal. Guillaume Cliche-Rivard assured that QS was in favor of an REM station in the neighborhood after an OCPM commissioner asked him to clarify his party's position on this issue. In addition, if the political formation refuses to express itself on the density targets and the type of housing to be favored in Bridge-Bonaventure, Guillaume Cliche-Rivard has nevertheless said that he wants the neighborhood to be built on a “human scale”.
By human scale, the local MP means that local services – shops, community centers, schools, libraries – be included in development projects. “Pointe-Saint-Charles schools are already overloaded,” he said, while a school is still waiting in Griffintown, a recently developed sector. “We are building for the next 50-100 years,” he challenged the commissioners of the OCPM.
The longevity and resilience of the communities that will be built in Bridge-Bonavanture were also part of the arguments put forward by Manon Massé, who said that a neighborhood should be built as an ecosystem, whose biodiversity allows the development. “When we install infrastructure in education and culture, we ensure the continuity of our communities,” said the Montreal MP.
