Civic Alert: Normandeau asks the wrong question

These are just some of the problems created by Jean Charest’s Liberal government and for which they have provided no justification. Political expediency is a curse, not an answer.

The great lack of understanding in Quebec City was epitomized by Nathalie Normandeau, the municipal affairs minister, when she came to Montreal to meet with the demerger mayors who are trying to make sense of the municipal structure which her government created and he blindly defends.

“Did your citizens expect things to be as they were before the mergers?� she asked them. What an incredibly out-of-touch question!

I am sending her the YouTube video. She will see many promises by Jean Charest and Roch Collette, the Liberal municipal spokesman of the day. They talk demerger, not a partial effort.

Why should citizens not expect things to be as they were? Just as the PQ could not give a comprehensive justification for the forced annexations, the Charest Liberals have not elaborated on their reasons for breaking the promises allowing demergers.

By asking that question, Minister Normandeau shows she does not know the full story and is in the wrong place.



Presentation released

Details are slowly emerging about the meeting Normandeau had with the suburban mayors and local MNAs in her downtown office two weeks ago. At the time, both the minister and the mayors discouraged publicity.

The suburban mayors assumed that Normandeau or her staff would very likely be briefing Mega-mayor Tremblay on any proposals they made. They hoped to allow the minister a little time to reflect on their suggestions before being swamped by the big city’s lobbyists and spin doctors.

The mayors will make their presentation publicly available this week. But we should be partners in building a better Montreal, not little children who have to hide their thoughts from big bullies.



Internet directions

Westmount’s city website continues to develop, and so do many across Quebec and, indeed, among municipalities around the world. It is making it easier to document a council’s work.

Most sites are following the same kind of development path – usually general and legal information, registration for courses and events and, eventually, payment of tax and other bills.

But the access to information that Google and YouTube have brought must lead to questions on the route municipalities are taking. There is something better in the labs just about to roll out – so are cities following the right yellow-brick road?

The digital Emerald City is constantly being rebuilt.



Charest exposed

The power of seeing and hearing Jean Charest’s commitments as near as your home computer is very strong, as can be seen from the home-made video now located on YouTube. I suspect such clips will be an increasing part of advocacy and a key factor in future debates and elections.

How will Charest overcome his broken commitments when they are so visible? They are there for all to see on YouTube. Unfortunately, the site’s address system is very difficult — particularly when meeting the restrictions of a newspaper’s column width.

Several of last week’s readers had difficulty in finding the Charest video because of the complicated address .">www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTH4bT0OH40>.">www.youtube.com A simpler method to locate it might be to go to www.apsb.ca,">www.apsb.ca,">www.apsb.ca, the site of the St. Bruno demerger fighters. Scroll down to “Voir video>� and it links to the YouTube site.

The video was made by Claude Durocher, husband of Ginette Durocher, who have throughout been leading opponents of both PQ and Liberal versions of the forced mergers.

It includes two Radio Canada newscasts with long reports on the anti-merger and demerger efforts of 2000, 2001 and 2003, plus clips of Charest from those years. There is also some home movie, made by Claude Durocher, of his wife and Charest speaking at the Friday lunchtime rally outside the Hydro-Quebec building in May, 2001.



Civic Studies

Blue Note “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.

Budget Likely 2007 tax rates and budgets will be known next Wednesday (29th) morning when the mega-mayor reveals all. This will include the operating and capital budgets of the Agglom and the centre city, as well as allocations to the boroughs. Then between Friday and Thursday, December 14, there will be 18 public “study� meetings. Budgets and taxes will be formalized at special council meetings downtown on Friday, December 15. And to showcase how this Tremblay-Zampino administration listens, chances are that there will not be one substantive change — in word or number — from the proposals deposited on November 29!

May-time NDG businessman George Bardosh is leading a last-minute fund-raising effort to support the campaign of Elizabeth May, the new Green Party leader, in Monday’s London North by-election. Bardosh, a long-term environment activist — he was a former Treasurer of STOP — is collecting donations and seeking volunteers for “envelope stuffing.� Like lots of environmentalists, he wants a strong voice in Parliament to denounce the Harper government's renunciation of Canada's Kyoto commitments. As a bonus, Bardosh — a financial consultant — promises “advice about how much you can save on your Federal income tax.�

Authors Though in his first term, Montreal West mayor Campbell Stuart, a downtown lawyer, was principal author of the presentation the suburban mayors made this month to Municipal Affairs Minister Nathalie Normandeau. Several other mayors added to it to create the final version.� A lot of midnight oil was burnt and it was a great team effort,� said their chairperson, Westmount’s Karin Marks. One of their requests to the minister: funds for specialist help when making similar presentations to counter Gerald Tremblay’s battery of tax-payer funded lobbyists at City Hall.

Singles 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.

Doubles The Robert N Wilkins, whose letter in The Gazette recalled the 1987 renaming of Dorchester Blvd and the procedure in other cities, is the historian — not the other Robert Wilkins, who was Westmount’s City Clerk at the time.

Testa Council marked the retirement of Public Safety Sgt. Mario Testa after 26 years’ service.

Roofs 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.

Parking 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?

Idling Emulating Westmount with its concern for automobile pollution, Montreal has beguns its first campaign against Idling Engines.. Eco-quartiers and community groups are 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.



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.