Valérie Plante is approaching the start of her fourth year in office as mayor of Montreal in circumstances dramatically different from when she marked the start to her third.
The COVID-19 pandemic, and the economic crisis that has come with it, has completely upended life as we knew it in Montreal.As hundreds of thousands of students, including Plante’s own two sons, head back to Montreal’s classrooms for a back-to-school season unlike any other, she joined Global News Morning to reflect on 2020 so far.With Montreal’s unemployment rate peaking above 10 per cent in the middle of the lockdown and many, if not most, businesses seeing their profits slashed by social-distancing rules and shoppers reluctant to spend money, Plante highlighted the.