Coderre accuses Plante of taking credit
Denis Coderre has accused Mayor Plante and her administration of stealing his credit for the creation of the Place des Montréalaises, the idea for which started during his mayoralty, in 2017.
Plante’s people say that the scope of the project was enlarged under Projet. Completing it took much longer than originally planned.
Ian 17:26 on 2025-05-18 Permalink
Yeah I can see why they’re falling over each other to take credit for the replacement of what was a useful tunnel with a concrete “pré” of sunken planters abutting a triangular microcopse.
Kate 09:34 on 2025-05-19 Permalink
People seemed to hate that tunnel, Ian. But I’ll have to go look at the Place myself to understand how it managed to cost $100 million.
I suspect mission creep, as indicated by “scope of the project was enlarged” above. I think people would’ve been happy with a modest landscaped area near the metro edicule, maybe with a piece of sculpture for focus. Seems to have become something a lot bigger.
MarcG 09:53 on 2025-05-19 Permalink
It looks the area between St-Antoine and city hall got a facelift as well, not sure if that work is included in the price. I guess the engineering involved in condemning the tunnel under the Ville Marie (I’m assuming this is what they did) and building a new overpass over a busy street would be pretty expensive.
Ian 10:57 on 2025-05-19 Permalink
That tunnel was super handy in winter, it’s pretty cold and windy around there. Toward the end there was even some effort to beautify it with murals. That said, scope creep on a project of this size and duration is practically a built-in feature.
Orr 16:19 on 2025-05-19 Permalink
Take a moment to get to know the Montreal women the park memorializes, like Harriet Brooks who worked with both Ernest Rutherford and Marie Curie.
Ian 22:09 on 2025-05-19 Permalink
I appreciate your passive aggressive scolding but let’s be real, libraries exist. Those of us who know the names of these women learned about them from reading about them. Do you really imagine that seeing these names on some concrete stairs will inspire people to find out more about them?
This isn’t a beautiful tribute inspiring future generations to learn more about historically important women, it’s an an overdesigned, pinkwashed boondoggle.
I bet 100 million dollars would have gone a long way to a sculpture garden with some statues and plaques.