Our dear local asshole, Geneviève Guilbault, minister of transportation, has announced that the provincial government would reduce its investment in Montreal’s public transit, forcing the metro to close at 23:00 and reducing the frequency of night time busses.
With all the progress that Montreal has had in the last 10 years, it is appaling to me that the provincial government would try to nip it in the bud. We are SO CLOSE to being such a great place! The Plan Vélo is going well, with only one hiccup in one borough. We have the REM, the REV, the metro has a pretty recent batch of new vehicles, we have a robust monthly card system that took years to get moving as well as it is now.
We were doing well, but the party in power lost one seat in an election recently. They are now in “appeal to our voter base” mode. Our government does not get many seats in Montreal. They are further to the right wing than the typical Montréalais, especially around the city center. They show their hand by building new lanes on regional roads that don’t need it, and reducing mass transport service in a city that does need it.
What a shame. Montreal is probably the closest we have to European style urbanism in North America. Sad to hear things are moving backwards but hopefully there is outcry.
The trend of treating SERVICES like they need to bring a profit rather than simply provide an essential service is extremely frustrating. At this rate, even the mail service will be whittled away until everything is privatized.
That’s earlier than I used to get off work when I did evening shifts. I don’t think this is going to get implemented without major public backlash.
The thing is, they don’t get elected in Montreal. They’re trying to retain the non-urban voters instead of trying to gain new urban voters. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Quebec_general_election
The CAQ don’t care about Montreal. They will never be elected there. They represent a class of people that is in the minority in Montreal. There will be backlash, but if you’ve ever spoken to the average voter from outside of Montreal, they describe it as a hive of scum and villainy. Anything that goes to the city of Montreal is wasted in their opinion. I don’t think anyone will listen to the backlash out there.
I live in Lanaudière. My city is Montreal, I am just temporarily unhoused and had to move to a friend’s basement to shelter in until rent prices and salary meet again in the center. The shit I hear about Montreal from suburbanites is completely fucked.
Yeah I know how it goes with the CAQ. The economic impact alone would be massive. There’s no way this decision goes through imo but who knows.
