{"id":13513,"date":"2023-11-06T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-06T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ensemblemtl.org\/?p=13513"},"modified":"2024-01-29T10:10:32","modified_gmt":"2024-01-29T15:10:32","slug":"projet-montreal-mid-term-plante-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ensemblemtl.org\/en\/actualites\/projet-montreal-mid-term-plante-administration\/","title":{"rendered":"Projet Montr\u00e9al’s mid-term report card A key promise unfulfilled, and services in the red"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the first half of their four-year term draws to a close, Ensemble Montr\u00e9al is calling Projet Montr\u00e9al out on its key promise to tackle the housing crisis during the last election campaign. Although all the housing indicators are in the red, the Plante administration is stubbornly pushing ahead with public policies that don’t reflect current market realities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The By-Law for a Diverse Metropolis, one of the most important tools for realizing their promise to deliver\u00a060,000 new housing units over 10 years<\/a>,\u00a0has resulted in just one 86-unit social housing project in two years, and no affordable housing has been built. The\u00a0available data<\/a>\u00a0suggest that every real estate developer who entered into an agreement under this by-law chose to pay the alternate financial contribution. Their proposed change to the by-law could make the situation even worse: forcing real estate developers to pay more might accelerate their exodus and sign a death warrant for housing starts, which have already suffered a historic decline of over 50% on the island of Montr\u00e9al, though they are on the rise in other major Canadian cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, despite its commitments to\u00a0the Montr\u00e9al Abordable initiative and the Cellule Facilitatrice advisory committee<\/a>, the Plante administration has still not taken key actions that would enable developers to rapidly increase housing supply, particularly speeding up the granting of permits. On the contrary, since they took office, the average time taken to issue construction and conversion permits has risen by 34%. In Ville-Marie, for example, permit delivery has gone from less than 50 days in 2018 to 150 as of today. Patience is also necessary in the \u00celot Voyageur, Bridge-Bonaventure, Hippodrome and Est de Montr\u00e9al districts, where development is stagnating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s also been no action yet on their promise to \u201climit real estate flips<\/a>\u201d. The Plante administration had pledged to obtain from the provincial government the power to adjust the transfer or \u201cwelcome\u201d tax based on the length of ownership of a residence. And that’s not counting the\u00a0300 new units with community support<\/a>\u00a0that were pledged to be developed each year to support people experiencing homelessness, so far just a dream.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Projet Montr\u00e9al agrees with the experts that densification is a solution to increase housing supply, its actions on the ground are somewhat contradictory. The Square Children project provided the opportunity to do just that, but the Plante administration decided to\u00a0block the creation of nearly 200 social housing units<\/a>\u00a0against the advice of the\u00a0Office de consultation publique de Montr\u00e9al.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Higher taxes, fewer services<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, the Projet Montr\u00e9al administration imposed the biggest tax hike in a decade<\/a>, and it has increased spending by over a billion dollars since coming to power. But residents don’t feel they’re getting their money’s worth:\u00a0they have neither better nor more municipal services<\/a>. For example, the Plante administration has been slow to improve the supply of enclosed garbage cans in high-traffic areas and to roll out a rat control plan, despite the obvious issues at stake. It even reduced garbage pickup service to Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve residents, by staggering collections.\u00a0Not to mention:<\/p>\n\n\n\n