Towards the Last Stretch of the Municipal Elections

Only a couple of days left before the Quebec municipal elections which take place on November 7. Where are we standing since the beginning of the political campaign of the candidates who are running for the position of mayor of their municipality? First of all, we hope that many of you have registered yourselves on the voters' lists in all the municipalities where you own properties in order to exercise your right to vote.

Despite the low voter turnout that we have become accustomed to for this level of government, the debates are nonetheless heated and involve issues that are part of our daily lives: transportation, environment, public services, roads, urban planning and, of course, housing!

Since the writing of our article about the Quebec municipal elections that appeared in the October edition of our magazine Le Proprio (edition #59), the candidates have presented their political platforms in greater details, and the critics have also joined in.

Let's think about the two visions of housing presented by the two main candidates for mayor of Montreal. On one hand, Valérie Plante of Projet Montréal, and current mayor, has made electoral promises that 60,000 affordable housing units could be built over the next few years, while leaving it up to community organizations to manage such a project. On the other hand, Denis Coderre of the Ensemble Montréal party, is counting on the construction of 50,000 units, but with the help of the private sector in order to increase the supply of housing on the market. This will naturally put downward pressure on housing prices. The presidents of the real estate companies Groupe Mach and Devimco have expressed the importance and necessity of inserting industry players for their expertise in housing. As for municipal taxes, Denis Coderre is proposing a 2% tax freeze, while Valérie Plante is promising an increase in line with inflation, which the Conference Board of Canada estimates to be around 2.6%.

Elsewhere in Quebec, the issue of affordable housing is also the "flavour of the month" of this election race. With the real estate boom, the price of home ownership has skyrocketed, and rents for rental units have adjusted to the cost of construction and renovation materials. As a result, we have a competition between most mayoral candidates for the best affordable housing offer in the hope of scraping up some lanes and attracting some goodwill.

The leader of the Action Gatineau party is proposing, somewhat like Montreal's 20-20-20 by-law, an inclusionary by-law that would require private developers to include a proportion of affordable housing in their projects or pay compensation to the city if they did not comply with the by-law. Here too, a voice from the private real estate sector has been heard and made known. For example, the president of Junic retorted that the solution must come in part from the participation of private builders who will be able to "flood the market" by building more homes than the market demands, so that in the end tenants will get "the short end of the stick" and prices will be significantly reduced.

Moreover, we have seen inter-municipal political solidarity between the candidate of the Coalition Longueuil party, Catherine Fournier, and the candidate for mayor of Laval, Stéphane Boyer, of the Mouvement Lavallois, who promise to hold a "housing summit" together if they are both elected in their municipality. It is also in Longueuil that the candidate of the Coalition Longueuil wishes to draw inspiration from the Montreal 20-20-20 regulation to encourage the construction of affordable housing.

In Quebec City, the theme of public transportation has taken on an unprecedented scope as a third link would be established to connect Lévis and Quebec City, and a tramway project could finally see the light after a decade of studies and discussions. But here again, the theme of housing is paramount. Marie-Josée Savard, who is running for mayor in the line of Mayor Labeaume, would like to implement 2600 affordable housing units, 20% of which would be dedicated to the homeless; Bruno Marchand of the Québec Fière et Forte party would like to implement an additional real estate tax for properties near the future tramway route; Jean-François Gosselin of the Québec 21 party promises 6,000 affordable housing units and a freeze on municipal taxes (commercial and residential) for 2 years; finally, Jean Rousseau of Démocratie Québec proposes $40 million per year for the acquisition of land and the construction of affordable housing.