Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada has no intention of moving the Notre-Dame St. encampment during September’s UCI Road World Championships, and isn’t concerned about how it will look on the international stage.
Asked about the issue during a news conference Thursday, Martinez Ferrada said she would welcome the encampment’s presence during the cycling event sparking a conversation about homelessness.
Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada has no intention of moving the Notre-Dame St. encampment during September’s UCI Road World Championships. “There isn’t a single city in the world that isn’t facing an affordability or housing crisis,” the mayor said. “If it can raise awareness about what we need to do as a society, then all the better.”
Dave Sidaway / Montreal Gazette
“There isn’t a single city in the world that isn’t facing an affordability or housing crisis,” the mayor said. “If it can raise awareness about what we need to do as a society, then all the better.”
The encampment has swelled to nearly 100 tents this summer, with about 150 people living next to the busy thoroughfare.
Scheduled for Sept. 20 to 27, the cycling championships will be the biggest sporting event Montreal has hosted since the 1976 Olympics. The event will see 1,000 cyclists from 80 countries compete in races through the city’s streets — including on Notre-Dame St. — and communities in the Montérégie.
Martinez Ferrada has said she views the championships as a way to showcase Montreal on the international stage and show the city is capable of hosting large-scale sporting events.
Asked Thursday if she’s worried the encampment will be visible on the event’s broadcast — and how that will reflect on Montreal — Martinez Ferrada said the city has nothing to be ashamed of.
“I call it social diversity and cohabitation,” the mayor said. “I have no right to relocate or dismantle encampments; that’s not the approach our administration has taken.”
The City of Montreal has previously tried to dismantle the Notre-Dame St. encampment, but was blocked from doing so by the courts. Martinez Ferrada’s administration has taken a more tolerant approach, adopting a protocol that states encampments should only be moved as a last resort.
The mayor said Thursday her more immediate concern ahead of the championship is not the encampment, but rather the state of Notre-Dame St. itself.
The street is in poor condition and home to some of the worst stretches of potholes in the city. The mayor herself had two flat tires while driving on it in February.
The city has already announced plans to repave the street before the championships.
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