Legault still doesn't know the price of a 4 1/2 in Montreal

Quebec City -

François Legault still doesn't know the price of a 4 1/2 apartment in Montreal, three years after getting bogged down on the issue.

The premier was responding on Wednesday to Official Opposition Leader Marc Tanguay, as part of the Executive Council's study of the department's budget appropriations.

In the midst of the housing crisis, Tanguay asked him if he knew the price of a 4 1/2 apartment in the metropolis. Legault then turned to the senior civil servants accompanying him.

When the government's secretary general, Dominique Savoie, provided him with a figure, he rejected it, saying that the real price was probably higher. "We'll keep digging," he said.

"I'm completely surprised that you and your whole team aren't able to say how much a 4 1/2 costs in Montreal," Tanguay said.

"We'll get back to you. I don't have the exact information and I don't want to take the chance of being wrong, even by $100 a month, because you're going to take advantage of it," Legault told his Liberal opponent.

"The blow just landed in itself, I won't need to add to it. The point is made," Tanguay said.

Legault had already stumbled on the issue of rental costs in 2021, when Québec solidaire co-spokesperson Manon Massé questioned him.

He seemed out of touch when he said that housing could be had for "$500, $600 a month" in Montreal, even though rents could "quickly rise to $1,000", according to him. The median price was $1,300.

The premier maintained that he was talking at the time about students sharing an apartment.

On Wednesday, Tanguay deplored Legault's "total lack of tangible solutions" to the housing crisis.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on April 17, 2024.