Martinez Ferrada pledges to consult borough mayors regularly if Ensemble Montréal wins election

Montreal Gazette

2 days ago

Montreal Politics
By
Borough mayors would meet regularly if Soraya Martinez Ferrada is elected Nov. 2.
Speaking to The Gazette Monday, the Ensemble Montréal leader said the current Projet Montréal administration has ignored the needs of the boroughs, to the point that Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante has not even met with some of them in years. As an example, she claimed Montréal-Nord mayor Christine Black told her recently that she hasn't had a sitdown meeting with Plante since 2021.
She said if she becomes the mayor of Montreal, she will create a roundtable made up of all the mayors of the city's 19 boroughs, and it would meet regularly. Although, she did not say at what frequency.
'The idea is to make sure we are giving the boroughs more power of influence before the executive committee makes decisions,' she said.
Martinez Ferrada said many of the decisions currently made by the executive committee don't take the specific experience of local boroughs into account. She gave the city's new snow-clearing policy as an example.
'I understand the idea was to save money, but I think we have to make sure that there is the space for everyone to make a decision, so that every citizen has the opportunity to have the same quality of services,' she said.
The snow-clearing policy came under fire from several opposition boroughs earlier this year because of a lack of flexibility. The boroughs of LaSalle and St-Laurent were penalized for undertaking partial snow-clearing operations last Feb. 4 without the approval of the central city.
'I think as a mayor, you have to work with the other mayors, wherever they are,' Martinez Ferrada said. 'It's surprising to me that the mayor of Montréal-Nord has not sat down with the central city mayor.'
Martinez Ferrada said the boroughs have also been asking for more funding under the Plante administration, complaining that the increases in allotments from the central city to the boroughs have not been in line with the inflation rate over the last few years.
She recognizes that borough budgets are tight, and added that she would increase the amount the city doles out to its 19 boroughs. How much, however, has not yet been determined.
'I'm not there yet,' Martinez Ferrada said. 'We haven't figured out yet how we will address the needs and how we will fund things, but we also have to look at blue-collar workers, because many boroughs don't have enough people to give the services to their citizens.'
Martinez Ferrada said that after nearly eight years of the Projet Montréal administration under Plante, Montrealers are ready for something new.
'People don't feel listened to,' she said. 'People are telling me it's very hard to have a conversation with the elected officials of Projet Montréal. We want to have a city for everyone and not leave anyone behind.'
She added that Projet Montréal has polarized the city, and there is an impression that the party only caters to a certain segment of Montrealers.