Is this the time to think of legacies?

Perhaps they think it is too soon. But the current term has only a little more than two years left, and that is not long to bring about a major change.

Surprise! Everything takes longer than anticipated, and that is doubly so with municipal affairs. As discussed last week, there is already a big To-Do list forming on Council’s agenda when it resumes full operations at the end of the month.

Perhaps there is a project lurking there that will leave a legacy for the Council or a councillor.

One of the To-Do items — the renewal, or in this case, the non-renewal, of the Dessau-Soprin water maintenance contract — build on another site — has been resolved. It will become a municipal activity, but that is only the start.

The consultants’ report on water infrastructure is awaited and will lead to serious decisions, especially about replacing the ageing network and how the cost will be met.

Another expensive item will be the proposed new Arena. The mayor is forming a phalanx of council committees to look after different aspects of the proposal.

What is the arena for?

Is the intention just to replace the present arena or duplicate it? Will it be used predominantly for ice activities, or will the building house other sports — indoor soccer for instance, with artificial turf?

How will Victoria Hall be affected? Will it continue to house some physical recreation or will the entire programme of fitness classes move to the new facility?

What lessons has Council learnt from the controversy over the artificial turf? Will they facilitate public input so that interested citizens like Jon Breslaw, Henry Olders or Gillian O’Driscoll can get information on which to build their ideas and proposals at an early stage?

One of the mayor’s committees will, I am told, involve asking for input and ideas from the community. There were many consultation meetings when the Library renovation was planned.

Perhaps the time has come for the mayor to send a letter to all homes outlining the Council’s approach to the arena and other major projects.

The resolution of these issues is critical to the future Westmount. During the forced merger and its aftermath, both mayors, Trent and Marks, were not shy to write to all citizens explaining the situation and seeking support.

So it should be with the arena project and the anticipated water works.

To-Do List

Other items on the To-Do List will need ongoing attention. For instance, have citizens received all the promised answers about the artificial turf proposal?

There will also be personnel issues. The new city clerk will have to be integrated into

City Hall. The Council must find a new chief of Hydro Westmount — the post was advertised last Saturday, and the Gazette highlighted it in their Careers Section.

A better deal within the agglom and other downtown issues are likely to take a lot of the time of the mayor and the director-general.

Councillors will be asked to support many ongoing events. In the fall, in addition to the recurring community events, there will be the celebration of the restored Totem Pole and its installation in the Library courtyard, and the introduction of the new Giller competition.

A lot of issues do not go away: monster houses, compost collection, better noise control, more enforcement of nearly everything, committee reports so late they interest the Historical Society more than the Municipal Association. Then, there will always be

a raft of pesky new issues.

Pool priorities

An example this week: Councillor Kathleen Duncan says people want a review of the policy of admissions to the pool when it is full.

Perhaps the biggest immediate task will be to unravel the proposed settlement with Montreal over the forced merger finances.

Time and again Montreal was reminded that Westmount’s pay-as-you-go assets were absorbed by the megacity.

When the WMA received a presentation of the mega-budget by Executive Committee Chairman Frank Zampino, the pay-as-you-go subject was raised. “Peter Trent had explained the system to me,” Zampino responded in his pleasant non-committal way.

Not only was Westmount denied the pay-as-you-go to use for routine maintenance, but the reduced capital work done was funded by pay-later Montreal loans that will need to be repaid by Westmount.

They took our savings and then charged us for borrowing the money to do the work. That seems improper! We also have to pay increasingly for capital work in the rest of Montreal.

If, as is likely, it is established that we have been under-recompensed for those assets, then there will have to be some tough negotiations with the Tremblay-Zampino administration downtown. They will say they cannot afford to return any money taken from us.

In that case it could end up before a judge!

It is indeed a heavy To-Do List.



What is your idea of a Westmount legacy?

What constitutes a municipal legacy? Offhand, I’d say it’s something of value that is passed down to succeeding generations of citizens. Many positive things come to mind when looking back over the last few decades. In no particular order, here is my starter list from the last 30 years — with an emphasis on what we achieved together through our councils. Note how many of them were innovations in Quebec or on Montreal Island.

· Ending the municipal incinerator and the waste burners in apartment buildings.

· Retaining Westmount Hydro when most other electricity distributors were annexed into the provincially-owned corporation.

· Creating enhanced waste collections — recycling, batteries and hazardous materials, electronics, leaves and garden materials, etc.

· Eliminating doggie-doo from Westmount sidewalks and parks.

· Banning smoking in public places and in the workplace.

· Restoring and enlarging the Library.

· Renovating Victoria Hall and the Conservatory, adding The Gallery.

· Closing Western Ave. (now De Maisonneuve Boul.) to through traffic and converting it to parkland.

· Responding to the Ice Storm.

· Creating the Westmount Healthy City Project

· Fighting the forced mergers and winning partial demerger.

· Compiling the 39 character areas for urban planning purposes.

· Preserving the CP Rail Station.

· Creating the Public Security force after losing Westmount City Police to the MUC.

· Supporting the Rotary project to build the Manoir.

· Creating the pay-as-you-go civic maintenance fund.

· Providing the agenda and supporting documents to citizens two days in advance of Council meetings.

· Hosting Mies van der Rohe’s unfinished Westmount Square — our world-class exhibit.

· Renovating the Bowling Green Pavilion.

· Maintaining a public school (Roslyn) and a citizens’ organisation (the Westmount Municipal Association) for 100 years and both still strong.

Do you agree? Have you other suggestions? I’d be pleased to hear your ideas of what qualifies as a Westmount Legacy

Gives and takes back

In still merged Montreal, the 19 borough directors were summoned to downtown to hear from the all-powerful Finance Department the amount each would be allocated next year by the Big City.

They were informed that they would all share about $900 million, roughly $30 million more and a 3.4 per cent increase on 2007.

But, like other Big Montreal gestures, there were conditions — they were all told to reduce their costs so that the Tremblay-Zampino administration can reduce its budget by $100 million by 2009, the year of the next election.

For our neighbours in CDN-NDG borough, this involves dropping 42 people from its workforce of about 500.

Part of the reason for their borough’s big increase is because of the large number of housing units being built — about 2,500 this year. New homes mean new citizens, all of whom want services and that takes manpower, which the borough is supposed to reduce!

Aren’t you glad you left Big Montreal?

Community activist Don Wedge can be reached at calert@web.net. His columns are archived at www.westmountexaminer.com, go to Opinion.