School and Oratory collaborate on summit access

As part of a lengthy refurbishing underway these past few years at the Oratory, including a major re-landscaping of the site, a part of Kingston Road, which was a winding street on the shrine's western edge that was closed more than 20 years, has been converted into the pedestrian path.

Part of the Kingston Road land, which had been under the jurisdiction of the City of Montreal, was purchased by the school in 2004. The new surfaced path, which can be accessed by a driveway at Villa Sainte-Marcelline, is equipped with four light standards furnished by the Oratory.

A lit pedestrian tunnel at the far end leads onto the Oratory property. According to Danielle Thibodeau, associate director of Villa Sainte-Marcelline, the Oratory is also paying for the electricity that powers the lights. "It's supposed to be lighted between six o'clock in the morning until midnight," she said.

"Because of this agreement between the two neighbours, the whole neighbourhood will benefit from it. I think it should enhance the quality of life."

Thibodeau, who is a Westmount resident, said she once had some security concerns before Kingston Road was formally converted to a path. She feels those issues have now been largely resolved.

"It was safe, but now it will be lighted," she said. "At night, when it was not lighted, I suppose people didn't like so much to go there, but now it will be lighted all the time. People will be able to use it more."

She said the pathway is already popular with nearby residents.

"I know that a lot of people use this road to go to Queen Mary to take the metro," she said. "All the kids who go to Collège Notre Dame use it."

Westmount Mayor Karin Marks said she could not comment on the completed project, having not inspected the site. While acknowledging that the pathway was included in plans Oratory officials shared with Westmount when announcing the refurbishing, Marks said she wasn't sure if the plans changed.

"I'm not aware of a little tunnel," she said. "When you look at it on plans, it doesn't necessarily look the same."

However, Marks confirmed that the project is in line with a policy Westmount has recently been following to encourage access by pedestrians to the mountain. "We're not talking about major roads that are going to bring more traffic," she said. "A footpath enables people to come up in an environmentally sound way."