Montreal Is Throwing a $200-Million Anniversary Party and People Are Pissed

If you haven't already planned your trip to Montreal next year for its 375th anniversary, it's likely because you are still wondering what kind of bullshit anniversary 375 years is anyway. Yet, despite growing backlash from local public, Montreal is getting ready to blow over $200 million on next year's celebrations.

As outlined in a recent National Post report, Montreal is wasting this fuckton of money on a what some consider to be a bunch of extravagant, mind-numbingly bad projects for next year.

In case officials in charge of the celebrations have forgotten, Montreal is in the middle of an infrastructure crisis: several elements of the city's transit system (the Société de transport de Montréal) need improvement, and roads and bridges have been literally crumbling for years.

But even when Montreal's public consultation office started planning the celebrations five years ago, they knew no one would give a shit about 375 years. Rather than opting for low-key plans, they upped the ante in an attempt to add some "positivity" to the city.

"Highlighting 375 years of existence is not really, according to the participants, a distinctive anniversary," the commissioners wrote in their 2011 report. "[But] After the latest setbacks linked to corruption, the city has to change course and move toward something more positive."

Perhaps throwing $200 million down the shitter isn't the best way to build positivity?

So where exactly is this money going?

$30 million is earmarked to light up Jaques Cartier bridge in colours that coordinate with all seasons. If you're wondering why that'll cost a whopping $30 million, it's because they want to keep it lit for TEN YEARS.

The city also wants to spend $3.5 million on "discovery stops," which are 27 stump-shaped sculptures on Mount Royal that are meant to be a legacy project. Plenty of Montrealers are rightfully pissed about this, calling it useless and creating an online petition against the project. According to Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre, the stumps will allow people to "reflect" on the mountain.

The most expensive project on file is a $55 million, 3.8 km "urban walkway" that will connect Mount Royal and the St. Lawrence River. Said to be symbolic because it connects the river to the mountain, this is essentially an unnecessarily long sidewalk. The original cost was $31 million, but has since been inflated by over 75 percent. This increase is due to an extra $13 million needed to repair the sewers and and water mains under the proposed route.

Most of the other project costs have also increased because the city is in such a rush to get it all done by next year.

Justine McIntyre, the leader of the Vrai changement pour Montreal party called bullshit on the walkway earlier this June after she changed her mind and voted against its construction. "I think that we're making a mistake in overspending on something that we should have perhaps tried to do more cheaply," she said.

"If we do it once and we blow it, and we go way over budget, people are going to be resentful. The public will look at the project and say 'Yup, there's the city wasting our money again'," McIntyre said.

Other costs include $119,000 to have an original anthem created for Pointe Aux Trembles, a Montreal neighbourhood; $500,000 to transport and install a huge Body Snatchers type sculpture that was gifted to the city; and $106,000 to organize events throughout the year.

If Montreal really wanted to make everyone like the city, maybe they should have just spent the $200 million buying everyone in Canada each a large order of poutine.

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