CDN-NDG mayor wants to cut borough in two if re-elected

Montreal -

Incumbent Côte-Des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-De-Grâce mayoral candidate Sue Montgomery wants to split Montreal’s most populous borough in two if re-elected.

“What we’re hearing from people, as we do door-to-door, is ‘why is CDN-NDG together?” said Montgomery on Wednesday, one of six candidates vying to be the borough mayor come Nov. 7.

She says regular services, such as snow removal, would be more efficiently delivered if the borough of over 160,000 residents were split.

“Snow clearing, garbage pickup, recycling, all of those things could be better managed if it was broken up,” she said.

But other candidates disagree.

Mayoral candidate for Projet Montreal Gracia Kasoki Katahwa says more needs to be done to connect the two neighbourhoods, rather than divide them.

“It’s again more division really -- a division that’s going to be more costly for the people,” said the candidate.

“It’s two public administrations. It doesn’t make sense to me because that money that we would put in two public administrations we could put it in affordable and social housing.”

For her part, Montgomery has included plans to improve social housing in the borough, including increased fines for slumlords, a lease registry, and the development of thousands of new units.

Housing is priority number one for political newcomer Matthew Kerr, who’s running with Mouvement Montreal.

Kerr says the borough needs to do more to help residents find affordable homes and maintain the housing stock it already has.

“Those housing project units we have: the HLM Chester, the PROJET Chance and the co-op on Elmhurst. Those 3 projects at the moment are left abandoned, derelict. They need renovations, they need to be put back together, refurbished.”

Ensemble Montreal’s Lionel Perez says, if elected, his focus will be to get more money to the borough.

People want change. They don’t want CDN-NDG to be in the news for the wrong reasons,” said Perez, “and that’s what they’ve suffered for the last two and a half years.”

Montrealers will head to the polls on Nov. 7.