Achi news desk-
Quebec City –
François Lego still doesn’t know the price of a 4½-year-old apartment in Montreal, three years after he got involved in the issue.
The Prime Minister was responding to Official Opposition Leader Mark Tanguay on Wednesday as part of the Executive Council’s investigation into the department’s budget allowances.
In the midst of the housing crisis, Tanguay asked him if he knew the price of a 4 and a half apartment in the metropolis. After that, Legault turned to the senior civil servants who accompanied him.
When Cabinet Secretary General Dominic Savoie provided him with a figure, he dismissed it, saying the real price was probably higher. “We’ll keep digging,” he said.
“I’m totally surprised that you and your whole team can’t say how much a 4 1/2 costs in Montreal,” Tanguay said.
“We’ll get back to you. I don’t have the exact information and I don’t want to take the chance of being wrong, even by $100 a month, because you’re going to take advantage of it,” Legault told his liberal opponent.
“The blow just landed on its own, I won’t have to add to it. The point is clear,” Tanguay said.
Legault has already run into the issue of rental costs in 2021, when fellow Quebec speaker Manon Massa questioned him.
He seemed detached when he said housing can be had for “$500, $600 a month” in Montreal, although rents can “quickly go up to $1,000,” he said. The median price was $1,300.
The Prime Minister claimed that he was then talking about students sharing an apartment.
On Wednesday, Tanguay lamented Legault’s “total lack of tangible solutions” to the housing crisis.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on April 17, 2024.
