Helsey St-Pierre

West Island Halloween tips and treats

Local Journalism Initiative / / / ,

By Chelsey St-Pierre
The Suburban

West Islanders brace for a mid-week Halloween on October 31 expecting warmer weather and bouts of potential rainfall.

Falling on a Thursday, many families are making a longweekend out of the holiday this year.

While some decorate their homes weeks ahead of the holiday, others decorate up to the same day filling their neighbourhoods with spooky wonders. The West Island is known, even to out of town visitors, as a busy hub for children and families that participate in this fun filled event. West Island has the suburban infrastructure charm that resembles Halloween “in the movies”.

Safety tips are being shared in school marketing materials, city and municipal websites, social media and by police organizations. Some of these tips include wearing light coloured costumes or adding visibility tape, choosing costumes that are flame retardant, using make-up instead of masks, adjusting costume lengths to avoid trips and falls, remaining on sidewalks to allow for traffic flow and reading local warning materials on how to best stay safe. For parents who are not available to accompany their children on a mid-week Halloween trick-or-treating outing should make arrangements with a trusted adult or plan for a weekend activity instead. Some cities and municipalities offer “Halloween on Ice” and other local activities on the weekend.

The trick-or-treating portion of Halloween takes place between 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and it is advisable not to trick or treat beyond 8 p.m. Trick-or-treaters should avoid homes that are not decorated as it generally indicates that they are not participating homes. Homeowners that wish not to receive creepy crawly visitors should avoid all Halloween decorations and turn off their porch lights. Haunted houses for small children should be avoided. Getting spooked is fun, but feeling terrified is not so fun.

While sifting through candies at home, parents should be present to do safety for consumption verifications during the triage. Any questionable packaging should be thrown out.

Last but not least, all participants must have fun! n

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Beaconsfield’s Bourelle asks Hydro to clarify tree cutting activity

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

By Chelsey St-Pierre
The Suburban

Hydro-Québec is currently trimming and felling trees in Beaconsfield with the aim of protecting its equipment. The work being carried out will continue until 2025. The agency is actively removing tree branches or whole trees that are incompatible with the electrical network or that pose a risk during severe weather.

Provincial laws override Beaconsfield’s requirement for permits and tree replacement. In order to protect the canopy, Beaconsfield Mayor George Bourelle has asked Hydro to report its activities taking place within the Beaconsfield city lines. In the interim, affected residents are asked to replace the trees that are removed. “They are not required to plant the new tree in the same location on their property. Beaconsfield is providing a free service via its tree planting program (Ensemble on verdit),” Bourelle explained to The Suburban.

The tree planting program provided by the City of Beaconsfield is available each spring until the end of September.

Beaconsfield is also offering a collection service for debris, such as trunks and large-diameter branches, left on residents’ properties as a result of the Hydro-Québec operations. In accordance with current provincial regulations, the agency can access any tree that may affect its equipment, cut or fell trees and leave the debris near the site of the operation.

“While this may cause inconvenience for some citizens, several options are available for recovering or reusing the wood. For example, you can organize a collection in partnership with a community organization or a wood-selling company. It is also possible to offer it to local artisans or interested citizens,” the City of Beaconsfield wrote in a public memo.

“Beaconsfield has a major tree canopy and we don’t want to destroy that canopy. We can replant in a nearby spot on the same property and our Urban Planning Department can help residents choose the right tree. We understand the work that needs to be carried out, but we asked them (Hydro-Québec) to communicate with us regarding their operations, to update us and make us aware of their plans, so we can work with residents to replace their trees and preserve Beaconsfield’s tree canopy,” Bourelle told The Suburban. n

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Tensions flare at Pointe-Claire’s Fairview consult

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

By Chelsey St-Pierre
The Suburban

A special public consultation meeting was held in Pointe-Claire last week to discuss the future of Fairview Forest and the height of the buildings planned on the Fairview parking lot. Tensions rose high as the majority of City Councillors say that they were not consulted on the proposed meeting or advised with proper notice.

“To this I can only respond that council has known this resolution vote was coming for a long time and that I had no way of bringing it forward other than at a special meeting, since they would not have allowed it to be introduced at all if I had tried to bring it through caucus to a regular monthly council session. The administration received notice early last week and notified council within a normal timeline for a meeting to be held immediately after our regular Tuesday caucus. Furthermore, councillors have called three extraordinary meetings similar to this one themselves,” Pointe-Claire Mayor Tim Thomas explained to The Suburban.

“Had the Mayor seriously wanted the consultation; he could have asked for it to be added to a caucus agenda for discussion. He never did this. His motivation was clearly not altruistic,” Pointe-Claire City Councillor Tara Stainforth told The Suburban.

“The special meeting was called by the Mayor for the sole purpose of having council vote down a resolution he wanted voted down. He wanted to be able to spin it to the population that council voted against public consultations. So in addition to having the resolution call for them, he also packed it with a preamble that he knew council could not allow to become the official position of the city. It was 100 per cent political theatre and an abuse of his position,” Pointe-Claire City Councillor Brent Cowan told The Suburban.

Thomas says that council removed multiple properties from the development freeze that was established in 2021, intended for public consultation prior to moving forward, to allow for condo projects and that they sought to do so with the Fairview parking lot. “Their plan to remove it from the freeze and put it in a comprehensive development plan would have put no restrictions on what Cadillac Fairview could build, since this legal structure would remain subordinate to our existing by-laws and special planning program,” Thomas wrote in a public statement.

City Councillor Kelly Thorstad-Cullen responded to that portion of Thomas’s public post, “it is getting more and more difficult to convince citizens of the facts and the truth. When so much misinformation is being thrown out there you can see why there is so much distrust — it is heartbreaking. But every vote that the current council has done with respect to development projects has been in the best interests of taxpaying citizens. The specific vote to ask our DG to meet with Cadillac Fairview was done with the very purpose of healthy negotiations and collaborations to get the best out of the entire land space owned by CF.”

Pointe-Claire City Councillor Eric Stork told The Suburban that the councillors are not against public consultations, especially on such a important issue. “Where councillors’ differences lie with the Mayor is that the Mayor chooses to incite the public, when the majority of councillors choose to inform the public. The citizens of Pointe-Claire need the know all the facts with relevant and pertinent information, allowing them to make an informed decision which may require a city-wide referendum to reach a consensus.” n

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