Fed up with what he says is Montreal's underfunding of the CDN/NDG borough, Alex Montagano loaded his truck with blue garbage bins, lined them with black trash bags, and dropped them off in front of Montreal City Hall on June 9.

"This is an interesting symbol of how our parks are not being properly maintained," said the president and leader of Équipe CDN-NDG / Team CDN-NDG, a borough-level party vying for power in the upcoming November 7 municipal election.

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Montagano told MTL Blog he decided to pull off the publicity stunt after a resident pointed out that many CDN-NDG parks are equipped with simple blue plastic barrel garbage bins while other boroughs have much handsomer wildlife-proof receptacles.

Montagano said he is trying to highlight how Montreal is underfunding CDN/NDG, pointing out that the Sud-Ouest borough (where Valérie Plante’s second-in-command, Benoit Dorais, is borough mayor) spent over $235,956 for 18 garbage bins with solar powered compaction systems in 2019.

"So, forget about the solar-powered compactor trash bins," Montagano said. "Why is it that CDN-NDG doesn't have money to buy proper garbage bins for parks?"

A contractor by trade, Montagano produced the blue bins himself using donated materials.