Mayors call for urgent action on basic services before Oct. 5 election
The mayors of Longueuil and Montreal pressed provincial political parties on Tuesday to put metropolitan infrastructure at the forefront of the Quebec election campaign, saying the condition of basic public services across the region is “alarming.” The joint news conference came as parties prepare for the Oct. 5 vote.
Longueuil Mayor Catherine Fournier said municipalities shoulder a disproportionate share of the burden for public infrastructure while receiving a much smaller share of tax revenues. "We are responsible for 60 per cent of our public infrastructures, and we only have eight per cent of the revenues tax," she said, framing the appeal as a structural imbalance that must be addressed by Quebec’s next government.
"It is not normal that the second-largest city in Canada almost ran out of water."
The remark came from Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada, who warned that core services such as water supply, pools, public libraries and public transit require steady and increased provincial investment. Martinez Ferrada said Montreal alone needs billions more in annual investment to close a growing maintenance gap.
Scale of the problem and priorities named
The mayors said the maintenance backlog for roads and water in the region has reached nearly $50 billion. They also listed additional priorities that demand provincial attention and funding, including support for the STM public transit network, homelessness interventions and housing supply.
- Maintenance backlog: nearly $50 billion for water and roads across the metropolitan area.
- Revenue mismatch: Longueuil’s mayor highlighted the gap between municipal responsibilities and tax revenue share.
- Social infrastructure: calls for investments in transit (STM), housing and homelessness services.
Fournier and Martinez Ferrada lamented that metropolitan issues have not taken up more space on the campaign trail. Martinez Ferrada argued the region’s economic weight should make infrastructure a priority: "55 per cent of our GDP in Quebec comes from the metropolitan area, 50 per cent of the jobs in Quebec are in the metropolitan area," she said, framing the argument as central to Quebec’s future prosperity.
| Issue | Figure (as stated by mayors) |
|---|---|
| Maintenance backlog (roads and water) | Nearly $50 billion |
| Municipal share of public infrastructure responsibility | 60% |
| Municipal share of tax revenues | 8% |
| Metropolitan share of Quebec GDP | 55% |
| Metropolitan share of Quebec jobs | 50% |
What this means for Longueuil residents
For people living in Longueuil, the mayors’ message underscores two linked risks: deterioration of daily services and the likelihood that municipal governments will have to choose between competing needs if provincial funding fails to increase. Fournier pointed to concrete examples — from libraries being closed because of unpaid maintenance to pools becoming unusable — to illustrate the human impact of deferred repairs.
The joint appeal is also a political signal. With the election days away, municipal leaders are pushing parties to include concrete funding commitments for metropolitan infrastructure in their platforms. The mayors framed this not only as a matter of municipal survival but as an economic necessity for Quebec as a whole.
How political parties respond in their final weeks of campaigning will determine whether infrastructure, transit and social services in Longueuil and across the Greater Montreal area receive increased attention and new funding commitments from the provincial government after Oct. 5.
