The three leading mayoral candidates spoke up on immigration and La Presse also quizzed them on some basic stats.
Updates from October, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Isn’t it delightful to have so many landlords in government? A new Quebec law allows landlords to pass on more of the costs of work done on their buildings to the tenants thereof. It was a parting gift of France‑Élaine Duranceau just before last month’s cabinet shuffle.
steph
The old calculation was the amount over 21 years (4.7%/year). Now it’ll be over 20 years (so 5%/year). Is there more to it than that?
MarcG
I’m also wondering what exactly has changed. If you look at previous years’ TAL rent increase calculation forms they include fields allowing the landlord to pass off these costs to tenants, which to me is the deplorable part, not the precise percentage.
Jonathan
I think the old calculation is 30 years @ steph
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Kate
A discussion was held Thursday by MTL 24/24 and Scènes de musique alternatives du Québec (SMAQ) to discuss policies on night entertainment; the only party chief who participated was Craig Sauvé. A major issue was the domination of Evenko over smaller venues.
Saturday, Chinatown hosted a debate, a major issue being homelessness and social housing in the (very small) area. No party chiefs were present.
Ensemble’s Thierry Daraize has been caught out with more controversial postings on social media, but I don’t see any indication this unduly troubles his party.
DeWolf
To be fair to the other parties, it’s a good move to send their best representatives to debate these more specific issues. Ensemble sent Alan DeSousa for a debate on environmental issues for example. In this case, it was useful to have Jean Beaudoin represent Ensemble, given that the Plateau is one of the boroughs most relevant to nightlife policy, and Erika Alneus is PM’s culture czar (I certainly see her out and about at many events).
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Kate
CBC’s Steve Rukavina has a good piece Sunday that outlines Quebec’s secularism debate, its history and its political utility.
La Presse offers 35 ideas for Quebec Sunday in a big dossier clearly meant to spark debate leading up to next year’s provincial election.
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Kate
Ted Rutland had some interesting points this week on Projet’s 20‑20‑20 housing policy, but they were published to X and Facebook. He gave me permission to excerpt some bits here. (The policy meant new construction projects with more than five units had to include 20% of social housing, 20% affordable housing and 20% family‑size units. Developers mostly paid a get‑out fee instead.)
One of the most frustrating aspects of the debate about Montreal city politics concerns Projet Montréal’s “20‑20‑20” policy or “règlement pour un métropole mixte.”
The policy is widely described as a “failure.” It’s NOT. And I don’t see Projet folks providing a strong defence of the policy. So […] I want to explain why it’s a good policy and why we need to go FURTHER in that direction rather than backward (as Ensemble Montréal proposes).
[…] In practice, condo developers almost always pay a fee rather than follow the 20‑20‑20 requirement. That’s not ideal, but it’s not a policy failure. […] In sum: the policy doesn’t operate as people hoped, for reasons I explain below, but it does something essential. It redistributes wealth within the most out-of-control and life-destroying part of the economy – the housing market. This is good and fucking necessary!
While the 20‑20‑20 policy redistributes wealth from the top down, Ensemble Montreal wants to do the reverse. Developers will no longer be required to pay into a social housing fund. Instead, all of *us* will pay developers. So the average tenant, who pays property taxes through the rent they pay to their landlord, is now supposed to subsidize condo development.
The developer lobby is happy. And that’s really what’s at stake in the current election. Ensemble wants to talk about bike lanes because it doesn’t want to talk about how it’s a front for the developer lobby and police brotherhood.
[…]
The reason the 20‑20‑20 policy hasn’t operated as intended is that the CAQ eliminated the social housing program, AccèsLogis. Developers were never expected to PAY for social housing; they were expected to BUILD it with gov’t funding. That’s the CAQ’s fault, not Projet’s.
You can read the whole thing on Rutland’s social media.
Ian
All good points. Why do you think Rabouin has chosen infrastructure instead of housing as his core platform?
The only time I heard him focus on housing it was to talk about modular housing as his solution to homelessness.
Kate
Rabouin has been wise not to make rash promises, I think. He knows the CAQ are never going to support social housing in Montreal and that the city can only do so much without that support.
Tim S.
Also, infrastructure is something everyone cares about. Housing matters most to those who don’t have it, who are paradoxically least likely to vote in a municipal election.
Ian
Renters vote, but our municipal politicians always defer to landowners.
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Kate
Both Godin and Côté consider Pedestrian Month.Côté hails the ceasefire in Gaza while Ygreck erects a statue to Donald Trump and Chapleau measures him for his apotheosis.
Our cartoonists can’t get over Mark Carney’s powerlessness against Donald Trump and helplessness in the face of his economic terrorism (but could anyone else put up a better fight, let alone a separate Quebec?).
Not for the first time, Quebec as the irréductibles gaulois is evoked, this time as a criticism of CAQ immigration policy. Côté also illustrates François Legault’s troubles with battery technology, and Ygreck suggests the risks of interfering with union dues.
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Kate
A man jailed for 14 months in July over his downtown business producing false identity cards and other documents has been let out of prison early.
steph
His shop was 1 block from the police station? Did they walk over to do the big bust?
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Kate
Boat owners were able to get their craft from the river this weekend after the water level rose by 15 to 20 cm. The coming week is expected to be rainy, so that too may refill the river to some extent.
Ephraim 10:41 on 2025-10-20 Permalink
What’s the point? Mayors have absolutely NO SAY on immigration policy, whatsoever.
Joey 11:23 on 2025-10-20 Permalink
The point is to participate in the public conversation to influence public opinion and, ultimately, affect policy. Learning about the candidates’ views on important issues that are beyond the mayor’s or the council’s area of influence nevertheless reveals valuable information to help guide voters (e.g., I suspect a lot of people here would be nudged toward or away from a candidate on the basis of their attitude towards immigrants). And, finally, how cities behave (in terms of expanding or contracting housing, public services, etc.) has a direct impact on the country’s/province’s ability to welcome new immigrants. Just because the targets are established elsewhere doesn’t mean immigration is irrelevant to the city or to the campaign.
Ephraim 11:53 on 2025-10-20 Permalink
In Quebec, the city government have EXTREMELY limited powers. They have absolutely no say on immigration at all. It’s as useful as knowing how often they wear a baseball cap backwards. They have no say. They can’t do anything about it. And it just makes me wonder how well they will represent me when they don’t even know their scope of power.
Jim 12:15 on 2025-10-20 Permalink
I’m with Ephraim here. It’s great that mayoral candidates share their views, but they sometimes seem to forget the division of powers between federal, provincial, and municipal levels. Immigration policy, who gets selected, admission targets, and quotas.It is managed by the federal and provincial governments, not the city.
That said, municipalities do play an indirect role through housing, integration, and local services, which affect how well newcomers can settle.
IMO, when campaign time is short, it would be good to focus the debate on real municipal issues.The ones they can actually act on.
DeWolf 16:48 on 2025-10-20 Permalink
I think Joey is right here. Immigration is essential to Montreal in many different ways. Even if municipal officials have no control over immigration levels, francisation courses, etc., it’s important to know what their priorities are when it comes to immigration.
And cities are responsible for various immigration-related things, including funding community organizations that support immigrants, co-ops and other initiatives that provide housing for immigrants, festivals that support immigrant cultures and so forth.