Civic Alert: Fairview recalled… and Charest’s great deception

The Boulevard resident Jane Martin was one who was there. “I was among those who stood out in that freezing parking lot and cheered Charest,� she recalled. “I really believed his passionate remarks that day.�

The following week, she joined the Westmount demerger group being set up by Kathleen Duncan and Doug McDougall of the WMA. “I had never been a local activist until then,� she admitted. She became one of the strong anti-merger workers and eventually WMA Secretary.

“But then – what a miserable let down. Charest did not keep his promise.�

Of course, we sort of did get our city back. Ville St Laurent and others were tricked by the 35 per cent threshold rule introduced by the Liberals and stay force-merged.

“Unfortunately, even for us it was only a partial reconstitution,� said Montreal-West’s Mayor Campbell Stuart this week. He also had been at Fairview.

“Our key regional services used to be provided by the Montreal Urban Community (MUC). Our mayors sat on that council with Montreal and were part of all the decisions. Our co-owned police cars and buses carried our joint emblem.

“Charest changed it. Like the PQ, he cheated us out of a well-oiled organization and substituted an undemocratic, inefficient, expensive, dysfunctional Agglom arrangement,� Stuart explained.

“He did not deliver on his unequivocal promise. He misled all who put him in power. It was the ultimate deception.�



Boycott issue a quandary



Will the independent mayors group take up my suggestion last week that the time has come to further boycott the Agglom council? “All of us feel the present structure is useless,� said Mayor Karin Marks, chairman of their association. “It is a charade!

“Frankly we are in a quandary. We made a commitment to the minister to make it work and we have to represent our citizens as Montreal spends $200 million of their money.�

Marks is critical of Minister Normandeau’s closed door approach. “We have made several recommendations, but get no response. She met with Longueuil several times. The number of times she met with the suburban mayors: zero!�

“If Quebec continues to ignore us, then it may be time to make noise in a different way.�

The mayor is also doubtful that working in the committees will be very fruitful. “There is no stipend for the huge amount of Agglom work - no fee for attending the council or committees.

“That tells me that is what they think it is worth – nothing!

“The structure is totally undemocratic. Our ability to get information should be fundamental and enshrined in the law, not by the personal contact the minister thinks is a solution.

“The present Agglom is false and phony, showing a lack of respect for democracy.�



Festive farewell for Fred



Westmount employees gave a spectacular retirement dinner honouring former City Engineer Fred Caluori last weekend. Though often hilarious, there were also many tributes and expressions of the respect colleagues felt for him over the 36 years he worked for Westmount.

Eight members of his family, Mayor Marks, four councillors, representatives of all City departments, the entire Public Works staff and several former colleagues were among the 84 guests in Victoria Hall’s Lodge Room.

Some highlights:



• With Caluori were his wife, four children, parents, and son-in-law.



• Mayor Marks chaired a “special� council meeting at which Caluori was again named Westmount’s Assistant Director-General. It was an appointment he once held, but it had been taken away from him by the forced merger – although he continued to step in when Bruce St Louis was absent.



• Director-General St. Louis compiled a “Retrospective of 36 years of excellence� A slide show, it highlighted Caluori’s humble beginnings in the small Italian town of Casacalenda, academic achievements after moving to Canada and graduation from McGill Engineering School, being hired by Westmount in 1970, promotion to Director of Public Works and City Engineer in 1986, adding the Assistant Director-General role in 1998.



• The slides illustrated many of Caluori’s achievements, especially during the ice storm and focused on “one of Fred’s most endearing qualities his unfailing commitment to his staff, his profession and serving Westmount citizens,� said St. Louis.



• Included were pictures of St. Louis after he had been hired by Caluori as a newly-graduated engineer.



• There were many gifts, serious and humorous. The D-G staff gave laminated pictures as souvenirs.



• Ed McCavour, the retired Assistant Director-General and Caluori’s previous head of the Public Works Department, recalled hiring Caluori in the summer of 1970. McCavour himself has just been promoted to City Engineer but had no professional staff.



• Frank Moroni, former Roads and Parks Superintendent, remembered meeting Caluori as they both arrived for job interviews with McCavour. Both were hired and worked together until this year.



• Public Works staff presented a golden shovel – “because he was worth his weight in ….�



• Hydro-Westmount “presented� a set of traffic lights with remote activator.



• Public Security donated a life-time parking permit.



• Information Technology created a golden keyboard that spelt out retirement good wishes.



• Victoria Hall staff presented an engraved pasta ladle as a memento of the many spaghetti meals he had prepared for employees.



• There were many speeches including ones by Councillor George Bowser and former colleague Gordon Black, who is now Director of Human Relations in TMR.



The reverence held for the former Public Works chief was a constant theme. Bowser brought his skills as a professional humorist to highlight them, as with: “Fred told me that Westmount has a microclimate. I have since determined that it was, in fact, caused by Fred. He creates a small but noticeable area of warmth wherever he goes.�



Where is the success?



Le Devoir was one of the most convinced backers of the forced mergers and rejected the reconstitution. Louise Harel, Lucien Bouchard, André Boisclair, Jean Charest, Nathalie Normandeau, Gérald Tremblay and the other supporters must have winced a little when they saw what the paper’s publisher wrote last weekend.

Au cours du premier mandat du maire Tremblay, soit pendant les quatre années qui ont suivi la création de la nouvelle ville de Montréal, les dépenses ont augmenté de 16,3 %. L'an dernier, l'augmentation s'est élevée à 3,8 %. Malgré toutes les compressions envisagées, on peut prédire pour 2007 une augmentation tout aussi considérable.

Le dilemme du maire Tremblay ne consiste pas seulement à éviter une hausse du compte de taxes. Il doit aussi tenir cette autre promesse, faite lors du débat sur les défusions, selon laquelle la nouvelle ville offrirait à ses citoyens des services de meilleure qualité et une plus grande équité dans la répartition de la richesse de cette ville. À cet égard, la démonstration est loin d'être faite.

Not a very good report card, is it?



Mini Alert



• The recent meeting about the artificial surface for Westmount Park’s playing field, although billed as public, was restricted to neighboring residents. If the project goes forward, Quebec’s loan laws require a referendum procedure. So there should be plenty of opportunity for debating one of the big city-wide issues.



• Meantime, Kirkland is considering adding a second artificially-surfaced soccer pitch, and in TMR a petition for one is growing.



• Even with Westmount’s Hazardous Household Waste collection (at the Library parking lot again this Saturday) and three all-year drop-off points, far too many used batteries find their way into landfills. Across the Atlantic, the European Union has just adopted a regulation banning them from garbage by 2010. Distributors will be required to take them back and recycle their contents,



• Laval Transit tested a hybrid powered bus – a version of the New Flyer, built in Winnipeg. It costs $700,000, compared to $350,000 for a conventional diesel model.



• The 40th anniversary of opening Mayor Drapeau’s Metro reminds many Westmounters how close we came to having Westmount’s historic train station as an intermodal hub. After it was rejected due to public pressure, a further site was proposed on Sherbrooke Street in NDG. This too was turned down by public outcry and the current Vendome site developed instead.



• Promoting Beaconsfield’s forthcoming public debate on his city’s finances, Mayor Bob Benedetti calls it “an adventure – a budget being examined and discussed by taxpayers before it is adopted.� Then he appeals: “Please help us spend your tax dollars wisely.�



• Côte St. Luc has finally begun to collect autumn leaves for composting. For this year’s pioneering effort, their council is offering free paper bags.



• RDP citizen, Jean-Maurice Demers, whose wife was killed by a speeding motorist in August, has asked the RDP-PAT borough council to support an annual “Journée In Memoriam� for similar victims.



• Westmount Historical Association was surprised to find the strength of the Francophone interest in its recent guided tours of legendary architect Robert Findlay’s local buildings. One group of visitors was treated to a Westmount moment they could savour. Strolling past the walkers on a mid-level street was an elegant male - dressed like Prince Charles in Highland regalia complete with kilt. In daylight! Tabarnak!



• Hogg’s Hardware features Westmount fashions in its west window: umbrellas with color-coordinated Wellies!





Kevin Dawson returns



Another familiar figure is back from retirement this month. Former Fire Inspector Kevin Dawson has returned to duty – but in the Urban Planning Department.

He had been a member of the city fire department, but was also trained as a Building Inspector. With the forced merger, he was transferred to the Montreal fire service. He retired a few months ago.

Recruited as a sanitary inspector, he will lead a short-term blitz on the mishandling of items intended for garbage or recycling pickup by the City. .

“Inspector Dawson has a comprehensive mandate,� Public Works Commissioner George Bowser explained at last week’s Council meeting. “He will focus on the cleanliness of commercial lanes, compliance with city rules for putting out garbage and recycling, as well as quality control inspections of contractors.

“He will also be following up citizen complaints and compiling a photographic data base of offenses found.�

Though based in Urban Planning, Dawson will liaise with Public Works and Safety as well as former colleagues at the Fire Station.



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