All three candidates vying for the top job in Westmount are promising to improve the city’s roads — especially the critical east-west arteries.
But each one has a different approach.
Incumbent mayor Christina Smith insists repairing a street as busy and important as Sherbrooke will have to wait until after work on the neighbouring Turcot interchange is complete.
“I think it would be pretty unfair to residents and just commuters trying to get through the city to block another east-west artery right now,” Smith told Global News.
Smith insists Westmount is spending a record amount, $9 million, on road repairs this year alone and even more on other infrastructure projects.
Longtime councillor Patrick Martin insists the city is running a structural deficit when it comes to repairing the city streets.
Martin says, if elected mayor, he will adopt a long-term strategy to fix the roads and make them the envy of Montreal.
“Within six months, we will have a plan. I will show you over the next 20 years which street will be done when, how much it will cost approximately and how it will be financed,” he said.
Editor-in-Chief of the Suburban newspaper, Beryl Wajsman, argues there needs to be a shift in focus to make road repairs a top priority.
WATCH: Westmount mayoral candidates’ debate on Focus Montreal
He says an affluent city like Westmount should have roads that reflect its identity.
And he argues repairing the main gateways into Westmount, such as Sherbrooke Street, shouldn’t wait.
“You can’t possibly argue that we have to wait until 2020 when Turcot is finished to fix sections of streets,” Wajsman told Global News.
Voters will elect their mayor on Nov. 5.
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