Civic Alert: How far will Charest’s eye see?

When he was asked about the municipal situation on Sunday, the premier was basking in the aftermath of an ovation from his supporters at Jacques Chagnon’s Montreal party workshop.

But many regular voters are still mad about the incomplete mergers and the quarter-million without a voice in determining their Montreal tax. The raging inflation also could have been mentioned.

After these reminders, Charest’s response was a snapshot history. It didn’t seem totally complete.

The forced mergers had been left by the previous PQ government, Charest recalled. There was a need to avoid harming the larger city, and the government had made an attempt to get a new balance.

“No one expected to return to exactly the same as before,� he said.

“Really!� I thought when I heard him say it. “Surely that is precisely what people did expect from that speech at Fairview six years ago.�

I presume he was aware that, after months of stonewalling, Municipal Affairs Minister Nathalie Normandeau finally had agreed to meet the 14 suburban mayors.

In fact, he had probably given his permission or even instigated her gesture, although he may not have known the precise arrangements. So he fell back on the “keeping an eye on it� response.

That’s fine. At least it is another Charest promise, although once bitten, I am twice shy!



What should be on the agenda?

Normandeau has been lofty in the extreme. The Mayors, helped by Pierre Lortie, found a $105 million overcharge of Montreal costs to the Agglom taxes. The minister responded that only $42 million had been counted in error, but she never bothered to tell the mayors of her decision, never mind explain how she had arrived at it.

One suspects that she didn’t understand the whole issue and merely relied on her civil servants. She will have the chance to explain herself within the next few days when she finally meets the mayors and probably local MNAs as well.

It would be great to say “the Liberals promised us demergers, now deliver them.� But that would mean them reneging on too much political capital. The requests must be moderate. Faces must be saved.

The main problem with the Agglom is, unlike the Montreal Urban Community (MUC), it does not allow a place for the suburban mayors and the Montreal opposition to participate fully in the council and standing committees.

This balance cannot be reconstructed in the Agglom, with its 80-20 percent property value split and 87-13 percent population split in favour of Montreal.

Even worse, although defunct the MUC still has such a bad reputation in the provincial capital that it would be defeated by the civil servants, who – even more than politicians – are responsible for the present disarray.

Source of top managers

The inappropriate nature of the biased opposition is shown by the success of the MUC’s recent top managers.

When the MUC was created in 1970, the civil servants were drawn from Jean Drapeau’s City of Montreal. It shared the same culture and defied spending reforms. There was a big change after Drapeau left.

Louis Roquet was brought in from outside as director-general. A former Harvard business school professor, he was a v-p of the Steinberg grocery empire. He left the MUC to take the top job at the City of Montreal.

Gerard Divay, a rising star in the Quebec bureaucracy, took over at the MUC. He then replaced Roquet at the helm of Montreal. In turn, the MUC vacancy was filled by Claude Léger, former director-general of Montreal-East.

And, who should become this spring Montreal’s new head civil servant, but the same former MUC chief, Claude Léger!

What was so bad with the MUC when three of its directors-general moved to the top positions in Montreal?

Bureaucrats dominate

However wrong the Quebec bureaucrats are about the MUC, there is no point thinking they will let the minister revive it. There will be no Phoenix rising from the ashes! Nevertheless, some its features are badly needed, starting with representation in the decision-making from all the electorate.

The present Agglom organization is somewhat like a weird baseball game, in which the coach of one team is also the league commissioner, his number two is head umpire, and most of the team walk the bases but never get to bat or pitch! The other team sits in the stands and never gets an inning!

That is not democracy and the mayors, the MNAs and the minister, when they sit together, can surely come up with something better – a new, improved, fair Agglom.



Westmount fills Communauto trio

Communauto’s trio of cars based in Westmount was almost totally booked last month, and the organization is thinking of asking for two more parking spots in the city.

The car-share service, which is being supported by Mayor Karin Marks and the City, is expanding across Montreal, not only in Westmount, company spokesman Marco Viviandi told me. Apparently the local take up is very strong.

October was the first full month of operating locally. There were only three days when one or two Westmount cars were not being used.

Communauto also sent a door-to-door mailing containing a deferred deposit offer. “It is too soon to measure the influx from that,� Viviandi said.

“Even so, we are analyzing the first full month of Westmount operations because we think the demand means that we should be asking for more parking spots.

The original car based at on the west side of Victoria Hall – a blue Toyota Yaris – was involved in an accident and had to be replaced by a black model.

The other two cars are located at the side of the old CP station on the lane parallel to St. Catherine Street.



Remember the parking place

Mayors Marks has used the service several times since signing on in September. The first journey was to a mayors’ association meeting on the West Island.

On the way home, she visited one of the large shopping centers just off the highway ¬– and lost the car!

“I knew it was very different from the model I had owned,� she admitted. “Unfortunately, I had not memorized where it was parked or the plate number!�

Her shopping break was an extended one as she searched – successfully in the end – to find her “lost� ride home.

“Let this be a warning to anyone changing cars,� she quipped.

1140 words

News by the numbers

1. The LaSalle workshop on Sunday was the thirteenth of the16 that Jacques Chagnon has organized for the Quebec Liberal Party. Each has featured Premier Jean Charest at the close. Chagnon has heard Charest’s party-leader speech many times. Charest has even joked that if he doesn’t make if to one of the final sessions, the Westmount MNA should do it from memory! In recent weekends, he had seen more of Chagnon than his wife, Charest joked to supporters in acknowledging the latter’s organizing efforts.

2. The Metro store is no longer double-bagging groceries at the check-out unless patrons request it. That’s a step in the right direction. We have arrived at the point where stores should not offer bags at all unless customers request one. The Premiere Moisson Boulangerie on Monkland has adopted that policy. There are too many plastic bags in use needlessly.

3. Emulating Westmount with its concern for automobile pollution, Montreal begins its first campaign against Idling Engines next week. Eco-quartiers and community groups will be issuing Billets de courtoisie to motorists found with engines running unnecessarily (also an early feature of Westmount’s first anti-idling laws). Montreal will also produce bumper stickers proclaiming “Je ne roule pas ? J’éteins !� sponsored by Gaz Metro.

4. On the October meeting, Council marked the retirement of Public Safety Sgt. Mario Testa after 26 years’ service.

5. The city’s presentation on roofs attracted a sold-out attendance last month. The many questioners were looking for advice on roofing problems, rather than seeking any legislative changes. “People really want to take care of their homes,� reported a correspondent. On November 16, Bruce Anderson will speak at the Historical Association on the Characteristics of Westmount’s Architecture.

6. The big diversion of garbage from landfills will come with composting of kitchen waste. One barrier has been the lack of processing facilities on the Island. But there are now several successful composting operations no further away than some of the mega-landfills. Simon Naylor, manager of the GSI plant in Lachute, will explain his composting operation at a public Healthy City Project breakfast meeting on November 22.

7. More immediately, Public Works reminds property owners that leaves infected with “tar spots� should be not be put in home composters, where the disease in not likely to be terminated. Instead, infected leaves should bagged and put out for collection. They will be sent to a plant where they will be composted at a higher temperature.



Agglom matters

8. Gerald Tremblay unbent to allow members of the Agglom council to receive stipends – everyone gets $10,000 a year, plus $5,000 for those with appointments to the five standing committees. Committee chairmen get $15,000 extra while vice-chairmen receive $10,000. All reconstituted mayors – except Karin Marks – have committee seats, as do those Montreal councillors who are not members of the city executive.

9. The Agglom council president and vice-president get no supplement – which means that Karin Marks, who spends much of her time on Agglom affairs, receives no remuneration beyond the basic $10,000. On the other hand, there is sweet justice, perhaps, for Montreal’s painful policies: as an Agglom charge, Tremblay’s city will pick up 80 per cent of the suburban mayors’ stipends!

10. There are union moves downtown to align parking inspectors with the police. As Montreal would like to acquire the suburbs’ meter revenues, the union might get its wish. Will Montreal baulk at the salary inflation that would follow?



Budget plans

11. Beaconsfield, which begins its participatory budget process next week, already has a preliminary version on its website, .">www.beaconfield.ca>.">www.beaconfield.ca>.">www.beaconfield.ca>. The proposed operating budget of $21.3 million is an increase of three per cent over 2006. Mayor Bob Benedetti is proposing many service charge changes, and plans not to fill all vacancies.

12. Montreal boroughs have many complaints about budgets. CDN-NDG refused to accept the downtown bureaucrats’ allocation and adopted their own version which was $3 million higher. This will require Montreal to agree to fund the increase, but with a $400 million deficit it will be unlikely.

13. LaSalle is thwarting Gerald Tremblay’s electoral promise of no tax increases by levying huge service charge increases. Lachine, Verdun, Pierrefonds and Sud-Ouest are among others taking the same way out of the financial bind.

14. Quebec City expects a three percent tax increase, but Longueuil tops the list with 13 per cent!

Quip of the week

15. “When renaming a street after Robert Bourassa, it should apply only to the middle of the road� – West Island musician and former municipal candidate Ricky Blue.