Valérie Plante and her legacy
Le Devoir looks at Valérie Plante’s time in office. Is the city truly greener than it was eight years ago when Projet first won city hall? Nice aerial comparisons in this piece.
Another piece examines where her administration fell short: the proliferation of construction sites, a ballooning budget, homelessness and the housing crisis. But Montreal’s problems are not unique to this city and can’t be solved only by plans made at city hall, no matter how clever or well‑intentioned. As this piece says, quoting an academic critic, “l’influence qu’a Montréal devant le gouvernement du Québec s’est dissipée au fil du temps. La Ville assume de plus en plus de responsabilités, notamment en matière d’itinérance, sans avoir le financement requis.”
A third piece discusses bike paths and urban mobility generally.
On the other hand, CTV reports that Montreal is getting its sixth UN office before the end of the Plante era. The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, aka UN‑Habitat, is opening an office downtown, and Plante is said to be delighted. But this piece also goes on to list ways in which Plante’s promises led to disappointment.
DeWolf 15:49 on 2025-09-18 Permalink
The Plateau got a head start on greening under Ferrandez and now the same approach has been applied throughout the city since 2018. I think it’s easy to take the change for granted when you’re living here, but take a stroll with someone visiting from another city and they’ll remark on how lush Montreal is.
You really notice the difference when you go to Toronto, where most of the greenery is on private property and there are a lot of streets like Dufferin or Broadview that are almost completely denuded.
Blork 16:36 on 2025-09-18 Permalink
Hmmm. This comment is more about the first Le Devoir article than about the question of whether or not the city is greener. The comment is simply that the aerial shots are a bit of a gimmick because they don’t really show any change, yet the supporting text implies they do show significant changes.
The top one shows a handful of trees planted in a few places in one park but neglects that in a few other places there are actually fewer trees. (Overall more, but nothing significant.)
The slider over Parc Lafontaine shows no change at all. A street and a parking lot have been turned into a pedestrian path and some other “pedestrian facility” but there is no change in the greenage. (The change in roles is an improvement, but visually from overhead it looks the same, aside from differences in how the sunlight lands.)
The other overhead shots show improvements in streets in terms of traffic calming and whatnot, but not a significant change in “greenery.”
Anyway, nice work on the part of the city, but let’s not convince ourselves that we’re living in some kind of new urban forest or whatever. Still much that can be done.
SMD 18:50 on 2025-09-18 Permalink
A related article discusses the challenges of greening and cooling in Park Ex, where it can lead to eco-gentrification: https://therover.ca/the-problem-with-fixing-heat-waves-in-parc-ex/.