Civic Alert: Council plans new clean street rules as snow arrives

When Council next meets in public — on Monday evening — it will likely have some new rules to announce and some legislation to put forward.

The council is anxious to see an end to the practice where snow is moved off private land — usually by contractors — on to the sidewalk and roadway. It has long been a safety issue as well as a civic abuse and an added cost to taxpayers.

At the same time, Council has asked for a review of salting procedures and is evaluating the effects of reducing its use.

SUE — Council’s Standing Committee of Safety, Utilities and Environment — has been working on the dossier with Westmount’s Public Works Director Jacques Lahaie, who is now beginning his second season heading the snow clearing operation.

Council has yet to agree to the new measures, but is expected to do so when it meets behind closed doors just before Monday’s 8 p.m. public session.

Also ready for the new season are new orange signs to indicate snow removal times on Westmount streets. The highly visible plastic panels will be attached to existing signs. City personnel will install them at least 12 hours before snow removal begins, giving drivers time to move their parked vehicles.

They will replace the famous orange sandwich boards in most areas which were typically placed on snowbanks when snow removal was to take place. Flashing orange lights will continue to be used on main thoroughfares.

New Hydro chief

The advance agenda prepared by city staff is long and involved, as is often the case as the year end nears.

A major item is to approve the appointment of a replacement for Westmount Hydro chief Marc Roy, who is retiring after a decade in the post. The city was staying tight-lipped on its choice at press time.

Plus an important contract is to be awarded for major support for water works. It follows the City taking over direct responsibility for local services from Dessau-Soprin.

Doubtless, there will be an intervention from Save The Park! delegates and council even knows their questions in advance.

Park activists Patrick Barnard and Marilynn Gillies attended last week’s special council meeting hoping to learn about the composition of the new advisory committee on Park grass. They were reminded by Mayor Karin Marks that, at such sessions, questions could only be asked about items on the meeting’s agenda. There was nothing relating to the Park, so they were excluded.

Barnard went home and submitted the questions in writing asking for answers next Monday.

They concerned the alleged exclusion of Save the Park! from the advisory committee, why the early deadline for completing the process had not been included in the original publicity and why the deadline had not been extended given Council’s difficulty in recruiting the advisors from all eight districts.

Westmount’s strong management

Monday’s anticipated announcement of Marc Roy’s successor as Director of Westmount Hydro will complete a series of top management appointments brought on by the successful demerger and some noted retirements.

Roy’s decade in charge has been marked by the “modernization of an antiquated system,” according to Utilities Commissioner Patrick Martin, who has worked closely with him since the city was reconstituted two years ago.

“Marc executed a plan that spread the work over the years so it minimized the peaks and valleys and allowed the city to deal with it in an affordable way.

“We now have a strong electricity distribution system which provides net revenues each year to help keep taxes down.”

As commissioner, Martin was a member of the council committee who chose the new candidate as Roy’s replacement. The others were Mayor Marks, Director-General Bruce St. Louis and Human Resources Director Alan Kulaga.

For Westmount, this is the sixth major management appointment made since the reconstitution. Claude Lachance came from outside municipal life to become City Treasurer, a function which did not exist during the forced merger.

Assistant D-G

Similarly, Kulaga became Human Resources chief, a necessary appointment with Westmount resuming as the employer of personnel. He has since been promoted to Assistant Director-General.

Richard McEnroe retired as head of Public Security and was replaced by a former Big Montreal police commandant Richard Blondin.

Three months ago, Mario Gerbeau moved from Outremont, where he was Borough Secretary. He resumed his career as a City Clerk and helms Westmount’s Legal Services.

Perhaps the most surprising choice was Jacques Lahaie, as City Engineer, replacing Fred Caluori, who retired after more than 30 years in the city. Lahaie had retired after a similar career in Laval.

“All the choices have worked out well,” said Martin. “I am confident the new Hydro Director will be a major strength. I was immediately impressed when we began to interview the short-listed candidates.

“It made me realise how fortunate we are in Westmount to have these managers.

Replacing Caluori

“When Fred Caluori left I wondered how we could ever replace him as head of the City’s biggest department. But we have —with a different person, who brings different qualities, but who has retained the same values.

“Similarly, Richard Blondin has brought changes to Public Security which are providing an improved service. The new City Clerk has incredible experience and Treasurer Lachance provides strong support to Council. Currently we are preparing next year’s Budget and Tax Rates, but at the same time he also presents five- and ten-year perspectives.

“This is especially useful as we continue Marc Roy’s renewal work and do the same thing with our water, sewage and roads infrastructure.

“To maximize resource use, it is important to avoid peaks and valleys if possible. Finance has a major role to play and I find the long-term outlook helpful as an engineer and the commissioner responsible for the big renewal tasks that face us.”

What kind of bag for compost?

The plans of those hoping to soon eliminate throw-away plastic bags got a little more complicated this week when Recyc-Quebec — the government corporation responsible for enhanced solid waste management — recommended that municipalities not encourage the so-called degradable and bi-degradable substitutes.

So are we to have the traditional plastic bag for ever? Hopefully not! But the new types — such as Néosac, which is used by several local merchants — contaminate the bulk of plastic bags which are collected for recycling.

Finding useful markets for recycled materials is a big problem and it is made worse if the sorting centres — JC Fibres of St. Henri in Westmount’s case — have difficulty in selling it for further use.

For Westmount, the Recyc-Quebec bombshell further complicates plans for compost collection.

“This is a confusing position for Recyc-Quebec to take, and it shows how complex the whole issue of waste has become,” commented Public Works Commissioner George Bowser.

“In an ideal world, we do not create problems for future generations to deal with, and it seems to me that the plastic bag is symbolic of those problems. They do not decompose, and if they reach open water they are lethal to many forms of marine life.

Kitchen waste

“When we begin door-to-door kitchen waste collection in Westmount — which we must and will do — we will need to be able to recommend to our citizens some form of bag, or bin liner, to our citizens. You can wrap table scraps in newspaper, but a bag is probably an easier and more attractive option for many.

“The ultimate is probably strong, cellulose-lined paper bags,” the commissioner added. “These are made from wood fibre and can be fully composted and restored to the food chain. Unfortunately, they are expensive, but once we’re taking the trouble to send organic material away for composting, do we want to wrap it in a container that isn’t, itself, compostable?

“What we need is a plan, and materials, that encourage the maximum participation in programs that divert toxic or inorganic materials from landfill. I imagine that this is what motivates Recyc-Quebec’s statement about plastic bags.

“But I think we can do better.”

The report was commissioned from CRIQ — Centre de recherche industrielle du Québec. They conducted a series of life-cycle analyses and reported that the favoured shopping method would be to choose reusable plastic or cotton bags.

Although about 6,000 tonnes of traditional plastic bags are recycled in Quebec, 42,000 tonnes — seven times as many — end in landfills. Some have been reused, including as a common form of garbage bag. Dog owners get extra use out of their shopping bags, too!

Two years ago, PQ environment critic Stephan Tremblay introduced private member’s legislation — since lapsed — to prohibit use of non-degradable bags. He estimated that almost 1 trillion bags were used annually in the world, with Quebec accounting for nearly 2 billion.

This summer, the Quebec environment minister said a decision would be made this fall on some restrictive measure — perhaps a user charge. In Ireland, usage declined 90 per cent after charging was introduced five years ago.

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