Montrealers Worried About Overpolicing, Social Housing and Road Safety

The City of Montreal held an extraordinary municipal council meeting, during which citizens and councillors of the Opposition were invited to voice their concerns. 

Many Montrealers and members of community organizations focused their questions and comments on the budget of the Societe de Police de la Ville de Montreal having been increased—an historical increase across Canadian cities. 

They pointed out that more police would not make the city safer, but would only lead to overpolicing of marginalized communities. Experts the Plante Administration met and consulted with also had been highlighting this point: more police does not mean less violence. It was also mentioned that 73% of Montrealers had answer, in a survey conducted by the Plante Administration in 2020, that they wanted to see the police budget reduced and not increased.

City councillor Alain Vaillancourt responded that the issue of violence needs to be addressed as quickly as possible and as strongly as possible to avoid the Montreal youth falling to violence or crime, and that prevention and police work can happen at the same time, as well as together. 

The Plante Administration revealed that in their plan for prevention work, 50M$ was put towards the EMMIS program over a period of five years. They emphasized that the increase of the SPVM budget is also for prevention work in schools and in the Montreal community. They added that gun violence has been increasing in the city and that "Montrealers want to feel safe."

Other concerns brought up by citizens and councillors had to do with social housing. They demanded more social housing in Milton Parc, as 135 buildings in the neighbourhood, that were supposed to go towards social housing, had been remove from the speculative market.