The war of words over the budget at Montreal city hall continues.
Mayor Valerie Plante had harsh words for the opposition Wednesday in reference to language they used to describe the budget, saying it was “really inappropriate.”
Last week, city councillor Alan De Sousa used language some called sexist to describe the budget presented by Plante’s administration.
“I would qualify this as a budget with a lot of makeup, a lot of lipstick, a lot of mascara, a lot of powder,” he said. “A budget that when you remove the makeup is a pretty ugly budget.”
Plante was not impressed when she learned he made the comment in both French and English: “Wow. So there you go. I just think it’s really inappropriate to use those kinds of terms in 2018.”
Plante went further, saying she was “very happy and proud of this budget.”
“I’m going to leave all the negativity to the opposition. This seems like a role they seem to be very comfortable with – in being very negative. So I’ll leave that to them,” she said, adding that, “It’s possible not to agree with a budget, but this is still a very rigorous and important exercise and I think it just minimizes and makes it look almost stupid and not relevant,” she said.
“I would ask them to act like adults and talk about the budget in an adult way,” she said.
The mayor said she was open to hearing the opposition’s motions, to be presented at city hall on Thursday.
“Those are places to have debates, and I totally respect that so we will hear their motions,” she said.
