This Tuesday, October 19, the Comité d’action des citoyen.ne.s de Verdun (CACV), the Société pour la Nature et les Parcs (SNAP Québec), Demain Verdun and Vire au Vert organized a Public Meeting with the candidates for Mayor of the Verdun Borough.
I would have loved to ask a question (or more!) to the candidates but time ran out, so here are my questions.
To M. Richard:
Do you have business relationships with landowners or developers in the Dupuis-Hickson sector? If so, how could you put forward the interests of the Verdun people instead of your interests and those of your colleagues as the sector is going to be developed?
To all candidates:
If you are elected, you will have four years to improve living conditions in Verdun, including in housing, so my question is, what will you do?
- Will you find a place to relocate the daycare les Trottinettes that is being evicted; and a place so the Centre Pause Parents-Enfants can offer its additional pots it was awarded, or will Verdun lose these much-needed daycare spots; will you find a home for the Women’s center?
- It is the housing market that is making it so hard (even for our daycares and community organisations) to find housing, so what will you do to control this housing market?
- Will you expropriate slumlords and their substandard housing?
- Will you reclain appartments and condos left empty by the owners who are trying to make a hefty profit?
- Will you stop fusions and subdivisions in in 4-plexes and less, where it counts?
- Will you build social and public housing in Verdun? It’s urgent!
- Will you give yourselves the means by going to get the money where it is, meaning in the pockets of flippers and evicters,for example by using permits or taxing transactions?
Citizens came to support us at the Maison de la culture de Verdun where the Assembly was held.
We have also heard from various media!
« With all the profits he has made compared to the average income of Verdun citizens, which is $55,000, can he really be expected to represent the interests of Verdunites in housing? […] People are here to answer that. » (Des citoyens dénoncent le candidat d’Ensemble Montréal qui a fait des flips, Le Journal de Montréal)
Rosalie Bélanger-Rioux chose to invite the audience to stand up against speculation in the real estate market, the fact that « homeless people are sleeping on the street while the city allows luxury condos to be built. » (Débat des municipales 2021 à Verdun : Marie-Andrée Mauger, Jayoti Nanda et Antoine Richard sur les enjeux d’ici, Nouvelles d’Ici)
« Fortunately, we have a strength : strength in numbers! The only way to turn things around is to organize and mobilize. » (Non aux gentrificateurs à la mairie de Verdun!, Alternative socialiste)
Rosalie Bélanger-Rioux 