This article written in french by Stéphane St-Amour was automatically translated using AI
The municipal election campaign is officially underway.
Midweek, the opposition group Action Laval called a press conference to confirm the mayoral candidacy of its deputy chief of staff, Frédéric Mayer.
Mayer wasted no time in criticizing Mayor Stéphane Boyer’s administration and the elected officials of the Mouvement lavallois, a party he describes as “worn out by power,” claiming that their “third term” would be “one too many.”
Budget in Focus
If elected on Sunday, November 2, Mayer’s first move will be to establish a multiparty commission on public finances to “clean up the various City departments.”
The goal is to “review each budget” and “reevaluate each project” to better “control spending,” explains the mayoral candidate. He accuses the current administration of “plunging the City into debt with flashy projects” at the expense of “basic services.” As evidence, he points to the deficiencies in the sewage system, citing approximately 1,750 untreated wastewater discharges into the environment in 2023.
“Just to maintain the existing network, we will need to invest $620 million over the next five years,” he argues.
No Tax Freeze Planned
Less than a year ago, his colleague David De Cotis, leader of Action Laval on the municipal council, called for a tax freeze in 2025, without success. Will Frédéric Mayer make this an electoral promise for 2026?
“[…] As long as we are not in control of the budget and do not fully understand what is happening, we naturally cannot make such announcements,” he responds.
Yet in 2021, Action Laval’s mayoral candidate, Sophie Trottier, promised Laval residents a property tax freeze for four consecutive years.
“We were in a completely different economic situation. The municipality’s debt has increased by $400 million—an 80% rise in just four years,” Mayer justifies, citing the tens of millions in surpluses the City was generating annually. “There was room; now there isn’t.”
He continues: “Before talking about a freeze, we will focus on financial control. If we can keep it below the inflation rate, so much the better.”
This marks a break from the party’s tradition, which, since its founding in 2013, has consistently promised tax freezes or even reductions, as seen in 2017.
Need for Major Infrastructure
Regarding Laval’s rapid population growth—approaching half a million residents—Mayer asserts that “Laval cannot continue to grow without completing the metro loop [Orange Line] and building a second hospital.”
With high-rise buildings sprouting in the downtown area, Laval reportedly ranks 15th out of 17 administrative regions in Québec for hospital beds per capita.
“I will fight to ensure Laval receives the help and support necessary to implement the projects our city deserves,” vows the mayoral candidate, who also pledges to seek a meeting with Regional Minister Christopher Skeete as soon as possible to discuss these issues.
From Campaign Organizer to Candidate
During the last municipal elections, Frédéric Mayer served as a campaign organizer for Action Laval. He later joined the party’s cabinet and became its spokesperson in late summer 2024, succeeding Nayef Mustapha. At that moment, he was certain he would enter the mayoral race in 2025.
After months of consideration, the events surrounding the August 9 flood became the “catalyst for action,” he explains, seeing it as a clear example of a “municipal administration completely disconnected from the needs of Laval’s residents.”
Six months later, he officially announced his candidacy for mayor of Laval.
A native of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul and active in municipal politics for over 15 years, Frédéric Mayer holds a Ph.D. in public administration from ENAP in Montreal, where he now “teaches the issues and principles of our governments and administrations.”
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