The Legault government is not Montreal\u2019s friend.<\/p>\n
Reliance on the Quebec government gets us nowhere, and the province often makes decisions that are detrimental to the lives of Montrealers. I suspect Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada already knows this, given that she and the opposition were united in calling for some\u00a0flexibility<\/a>\u00a0after Quebec abolished their fast-track immigration program (PEQ), and were completely rebuffed by the CAQ. Now our businesses are\u00a0losing<\/a>\u00a0qualified workers.<\/p>\n This is just the tip of the rapidly melting iceberg.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no hope of winning a political debate with the Quebec government over policies that adversely affect our city, as they can always say they\u2019re working in everyone else\u2019s interest, or are protecting the rest of Quebec from Montreal.<\/p>\n We need leverage, and this means sources of revenue independent of other levels of government. If Montreal\u2019s credit card really is \u201cmaxed out,\u201d<\/a> then we should reconsider the city\u2019s tax structure. (Remember: the rich can always pay more in taxes.)<\/p>\n What Montrealers can no longer tolerate is a mayor who says \u201cmy hands are tied, the province won\u2019t help us.\u201d We need to help ourselves. And cutting spending isn\u2019t the solution: we\u2019re a city of nearly two million people, and we can\u2019t keep accepting austerity budgets. \u25a0<\/p>\n An excerpt from\u00a0Dear Soraya pt. 2<\/a>, originally published in the February 2026 issue of Cult MTL.<\/p>\n The Legault government is not Montreal\u2019s friend<\/p>\n