Plateau borough mayor slams Turcot plans

The mayor of Montreal's Plateau borough says he won't apologize for using strong language to criticize reconstruction plans for the Turcot Interchange.

On his blog, Luc Ferrandez called unnamed Quebec transport officials "social retards" for refusing to look beyond their own narrow mandate while designing a major highway structure such as the Turcot.

Quebec's transport ministry rejected Montreal's plan for the crumbling highway structure earlier this month, claiming it is too expensive and time-consuming. Montreal's plan was honed after public consultations with residents who live next to the highway interchange.

"That it goes through a neighbourhood, that it goes behind houses, that it goes through a city that has to be developed, they don't care," Ferrandez said in an interview with CBC.

"They tell me time and time again it's not in their mandate" to consult the public, Ferrandez added. "This [bureaucratic] structure has to be modernized."

Montreal's plan to revamp the Turcot interchange includes reducing the number of car lanes in the east-west axis from four to two, and adding a public transit lane.