Published October 25, 2023

Joel Goldenberg – The Suburban LJI Reporter

The ongoing issue of reduced parking in St. Laurent, prompted by new no parking zones five metres from intersections and lengthy restrictions, as much as eight hours long, on designated days, prompted a great deal of anger at the October borough council meeting.

The question period was a marathon one, lasting for three and a half hours, with the vast majority of residents, primarily in the west end of St. Laurent, asking about the issue. One resident said her son has to park blocks away, another said she and her husband have difficulty parking near their home in their two cars.

“I’m embarrassed to say you’re my Mayor!” Carré Simon resident Barry Vengroff told Mayor Alan DeSousa. “You could change things! This city is becoming a hole!”

Former councillor Charles Benchimol prompted cheers when he said, as far as he could see, there was no problem involving parking and traffic for the last several decades.

“Is it your job to create or solve problems?” another resident asked.

De L’Everest resident Vince Monticciolo, from the Bois Franc area, told The Suburban he may start a party and run against DeSousa over the parking, and other traffic and quality of life issues. Another resident was heard asking when the next municipal election is taking place.

White Street resident Barry Rolbin, who questioned council at the September meeting, asked DeSousa if council would halt the process of the five-metre and lengthy one day a week parking restrictions.

“We’ve done our surveys, we’ve gone door to door, we’ve let everyone know about this,” Rolbin said. “We have signs on my streets and other streets where it goes from five metres to 20 metres depending on the aesthetics and placement of the post. This was told to us by a public worker who was there…. Now, you plan on implementing this in the rest of St. Laurent. Are you planning on stopping this?”

DeSousa said he checked out the situation himself.

“With regards to the application of the rules, clearly there’s nothing new [with the five metre rule], it’s the provincial Highway Code, that’s what’s being applied. And you’re saying right now, it’s being applied in an inequitable manner, then anything you can bring to our attention, we will bring it to the attention of the committee that is applying this. And will we be assessing this? Yes, we will, we have on a continuous basis brought it to the attention of our staff.”

Rolbin pressed for an answer to his question, “when are you going to stop this and reassess this before you continue with this fiasco?”

DeSousa said the regulations are being implemented.

“So you’re not stopping it?” Rolbin asked.

“No, we’re rolling it out and it’s being applied,” DeSousa said. “If there are elements that are incorrect or [we can] adjust or find solutions to, we’re quite willing to do that.”

“You’re going to create the problem and fix it afterwards?” Rolbin asked. “That’s what’s happening!”

“No,” said DeSousa. “From what I observe, the work is being done and according to a methodology that appears correct.”

“You’re going to continue!” Rolbin said.

“I’m giving you a straight answer,” DeSousa replied.

“It’s a horrible answer,” the resident said.

Some residents wanted to express their concerns directly to The Suburban. Carré Simon resident David Bokobza said “the problem is not stopping, it’s just increasing. Every single day, they’re doing new streets and more and more people are very upset because they don’t have space to park their cars anymore! On small streets, they remove up to 18 parking spots with what they’re doing! They’re not doing this on a case by case basis.” n

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