Joel Ceausu – The Suburban LJI Reporter
A motion by CDN-NDG borough’s opposition asking the Plante administration to study impacts on surrounding neighbourhoods and residents of its $90 million-plus plan to shut half of Mount Royal to car traffic, led to a vote to withdraw it – by its original proponent – amid a fiery exchange at last week’s council meeting.
Darlington’s Stephanie Valenzuela told council that after the 2018 pilot project closing vehicle access to Mount Royal, “we saw the surrounding streets have more traffic,” referring to small streets in Côte des Neiges. “There are so many things we need to take into consideration, and that’s why the main thing we were asking for was a study showing us exactly what these effects are so that we can prepare ourselves.”
Her motion was amended by the administration, replacing the study request with a pledge to “collaborate” with the city centre, a change so substantial, said Valenzuela, that she voted to withdraw it, albeit unsuccessfully. “The Projet Montréal administration used their majority to completely strip away the essence of what we proposed.”
CDN councillor Magda Popeanu was absent from the meeting, as well as the earlier session when the borough budget was adopted. Mayor Gracia Kasoki Katahwa’s tie-breaking vote kept alive the amended motion, which also dropped a demand that the city centre foot the bill for studies and improvements, instead asking the city to cover costs on arterial roads only, as well as removing language about the Office de consultation publique de Montréal recommendation to keep Camillien Houde-Remembrance open.
Katahwa said the city already knows where the problems are and its engineers have studied the issue. “We are no longer at the time of studies, we are really at the time of action… We did not wait for Ensemble Montréal to do it,” adding, the borough informed the centre city “of the need for geometric redevelopment, to add links between active transportation that would be necessary around the mountain.”
Like the amended motion, Katahwa, who also serves on the STM board of directors, said that local bus service will not only be maintained, but increased and improved.
Valenzuela demurred. “A request for ‘collaboration’ with the city centre doesn’t give us concrete studies that we can follow in terms of changes that will take place in our borough, and in Outremont,” noting more than 8,000 cars daily using the mountain as a transit route will use other roads that already have significant numbers of people walking, crossing streets, and riding bicycles. “As responsible elected officials we need to ensure everything is done to make sure we have the proper infrastructures in place.”
Snowdon councillor Sonny Moroz scoffed at collaboration “‘to carry out safety interventions at major intersections and to improve cycling infrastructure around the mountain.’ Just in case you’re not perfect and you haven’t thought about everything,” he lambasted Katahwa, “maybe also think about pedestrians, people with reduced mobility, because it’s not written in your amended motion.” He said residents of Ridgewood, Forest Hill and Rockhill neighbourhoods will be significantly impacted, including seniors, youth, students, and people with reduced mobility “who need access over the mountain, and not an alternative route on Côte Ste. Catherine or Pine… they have a life on the other side of the mountain that you cut without consultation.”
Still critiquing the mayor, Moroz corrected himself: “No, sorry! There was a consultation, the biggest consultation in the history of Montreal, whose first recommendation was to keep access open for everyone. But you’re keeping your head down, you’re looking at your notes for a solution. You don’t have any solution to this problem there, because you haven’t looked at the recommendations inside the OCPM report.” n