Montreal and Longueuil mayors demand billions in infrastructure funding from Quebec parties

Montreal and Longueuil's mayors held a joint press conference Tuesday to tell Quebec's political parties that the metropolitan area's basic infrastructure is in crisis—and it needs to become an election priority.

Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada noted that "it is not normal that the second-largest city in Canada almost ran out of water." The Greater Montreal Area faces a maintenance backlog for water and roads of nearly $50 billion, according to the mayors. Montreal needs billions more in investment each year to prevent further deterioration.

The funding gap is structural. "We are responsible for 60 per cent of our public infrastructures, and we only have eight per cent of the revenues tax," Longueuil Mayor Catherine Fournier said. Montreal generates 55 per cent of Quebec's GDP and hosts 50 per cent of the province's jobs, yet the metro region's infrastructure needs have received minimal attention on the campaign trail.

Martinez Ferrada outlined additional priorities: the STM transit system, homelessness solutions, and housing. "We need to make sure that we're working together in order to make the right choices and the right choices is to make sure that in two, three, five years, people will still have water, that people will still be able to go to a pool because it's been to the norm and they can actually swim in it. Or people can go to a library because I didn't have to close it down because I didn't have the money to just fix the toilets," she said.

Quebec voters head to the polls Oct. 5.