JOSHUA ALLAN

JOSHUA ALLAN
The 1510 West

The Montreal Agglomeration council is “a joke” that siphons money from demerged cities without giving them a voice, according to officials in several demerged cities.

“The demerged municipalities are really there to rubber stamp what’s on the agenda because we have absolutely no power,” Beaconsfield Mayor Georges Bourelle told The 1510 West. “The agglomeration council meetings are a joke. They’re an absolute joke.”

The comments come as towns across the West Island are in the throes of wrestling their municipal budgets into submission, attempting to juggle the increasing financial burden imposed by the city of Montreal for shared services, inflationary pressures that are pushing the cost of local services upward and the need to keep taxes increases from overburdening homeowners.

These monthly council meetings are designed to adopt bylaws and authorize expenditures on shared services across the island of Montreal, including public transit, social housing and emergency services. The council is  made up of 15 Montreal city councillors and the mayors of the 14 demerged cities.

However, the council’s voting system reduces the weight of the demerged cities significantly, allotting them only 13 per cent of the votes compared with the city of Montreal’s 87 per cent.

Kirkland councillor Domenico Zito sat in for Mayor Michel Gibson during the Nov. 15 and Nov. 23 agglomeration meetings, and offered a bleak report at the Dec. 4 Kirkland town council meeting.

The demerged cities had “nothing to say because we’re outvoted all the time,” Zito told council. “Whatever we would like to say, we are always being outvoted. Nothing really happened that really we could do anything about.”

This is not a new phenomenon, Zito said. “It is the same story every month.”

Gibson agreed: “We are not being heard and we cannot stop any agglomeration item on the agenda,” he stated in an email.

The mayor of Kirkland went on to suggest that the agglomeration council be abolished and replaced with what he called a “ special-purpose board.” He explained that this step would be the “only way to have justice and a say for what we are paying for.”

As for the Montreal councillors who sit on the agglomeration council, “they really don’t care,” Gibson added.

In 2019, the city of Beaconsfield launched a lawsuit against the agglomeration for what it claims is unfairly high taxation on Beaconsfield residents for public services. Bourelle said Beaconsfield residents pay about 60 per cent more for services compared with Montreal residents.

“We’re paying through the nose, and we’re not getting an equivalent service for the money we’re paying,” Bourelle said. The case is still pending.

The demerged cities are “a cash cow to the City of Montreal,” Bourelle added.

A recent report by Montreal’s Commission sur les finances et l’administration – on which Bourelle serves as vice-chair – highlighted the taxation inequity between residents of Montreal and the demerged cities.

The report states: “Most of the agglomeration’s services are provided on the territory and for the primary benefit of the population of the city of Montreal alone.” This report is set to be presented at the next Agglomeration council meeting, which takes place tomorrow, Dec. 14.

JOSHUA ALLAN
The 1019 Report

It’s out with the old and in with the new for a lot in the heart of St. Lazare’s village, as the town’s council last week voted in favour of tearing down a house on Ste. Angelique Road that dates back to the 1870s and allowing a modern replica to be built in its place.

The two-storey house, which has been vacant for the last four years, is located on the north side of the street, directly across from the St. Lazare city hall. Once it is removed, it will be replaced with a new building that will almost look identical, municipal officials said. The building will have a mixed residential and commercial zoning.

The plan, according to councillor Richard Chartrand, a member of the town’s urban planning advisory committee, provides what he called a “copy-paste” approach, where the heritage look of the original building will be maintained.

Chartrand admits the current building has seen better days, having experienced water damage and showing cracks in several areas.

“It was judged that it was in a rough enough shape that renovating the building wasn’t an option,” said town spokesperson Christelle Paré, adding that in 2022 the provincial Ministry of Culture and Communications ruled it did not meet the criteria to be considered a heritage building.

Paré said a medical aesthetic clinic will be housed in the new building once construction is completed. The demolition permit for the existing building has been issued, but it is not yet know when work will begin to tear it down, she added.

Cutline:

St. Lazare council last week voted to allow this old house, which dates back to the 1870s, to be torn down and placed with a similar looking building.

By JOSHUA ALLAN

The 1510 West

The fire that destroyed the Collins Clarke MacGillivray White funeral home in Pointe Claire last Wednesday was like losing an “icon in the community,” say some Pointe Claire residents.

The establishment, just off Highway 20 at Cartier Avenue, opened in the 1960s, quickly becoming the go-to option for funerals and memorial services for many residents of Pointe Claire, said resident Terry O’Shaughnessy.

“Both my parents, my grandparents were waked from there, some aunts and uncles, some neighbours, friends,” O’Shaughnessy said. “It’s sort of like a place for our family history that’s now gone.”

“Collins,” as it was often referred to, had been a part of the family history for many residents of the West Island, including Donna Cameron, a lifelong resident of Pointe Claire.

It was where Cameron’s family held a wake for her brother, and later for her father.

“It really is the funeral home,” she said. “Whenever one of my friends’ parents passed away, or neighbours, or people that you know in Pointe Claire, it’s rare that it’s not at Collins.”

Cameron said she witnessed the smoke from the fire rising into the sky while driving home on Highway 20 last Wednesday.

“Just seeing it burning brought back all those memories,” she said, recalling the many wakes and visitations of friends and family she attended over the years at the funeral home. 

Collins had also contained a columbarium which had not been spared by the fire.

Cameron said she knows people who kept the ashes of deceased family members in the columbarium.

“My mother called me and was quite upset because her friend’s husband’s (ashes) were in there,” Cameron said. “She actually had made plans to join her husband, put her urn in there as well.”

Pointe Claire Mayor Tim Thomas took to social media last Wednesday to express his sympathies regarding the fire.

“Collins served several generations of Pointe Claire citizens in their time of need and is an important part of our community,” he wrote. Montreal’s fire service is currently investigating the cause of the fire and has yet to disclose the cause of the blaze.

JOSHUA ALLAN
The 1019 Report

So how does a Canadian country music superstar go from centre stage at a sold-out concert at Montreal’s Bell Centre one day to riding the trails on horseback in St. Lazare the next?

The answer is an old friend who knows how to inspire a little awe for a Juno winner with a reputation of making sure everyone knows what does not impress her much.

Shania Twain, the best-selling female country music artist of all time, performed in Montreal on Wednesday, Oct. 25, a stop in her Queen of Me tour. But before the show, just after arriving in the city, she contacted Stéphan Daoust of the Écuries les Cèdres to inquire where she might be able to get in some riding time on her day off. Daoust suggested a visit to the Club Équestre Les Forestiers in St. Lazare.

According to Daoust, he and Twain have “known each other for a while” through equestrian groups.

Accompanied by a small group of friends and family, Twain made her way out to St. Lazare on Thursday, Oct. 26.

“She found the space to be really, really beautiful,” said Daoust. “The weather was perfect. The colours were almost perfect.”

Twain rode one of Daoust’s horses, a black mare named Nice. Twain, along with her group, and Daoust were joined by Claire Laplante, the director of trail maintenance for the Forestiers equestrian club. They rode the trails for two hours.

“She really enjoyed (the) trail,” Laplante said. “Everybody enjoyed it. It was beautiful with the colours.”

It was a good day for a ride too, Daoust added.

Laplante attested to Twain’s skill as a rider. The star frequently shares videos on social media of her riding and caring for horses, and has incorporated performances on horseback into some of her shows.

The group finished the ride with a trip up to the Sucrerie de la Montagne in Rigaud. There, they enjoyed a meal and viewed a demonstration on how maple syrup is made, which Twain was particularly interested in, Laplante added.

Amidst a busy tour with stops in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., Twain appreciated having “a few hours to just relax with her friends” on a trail ride, Laplante said.

“We want to express our gratitude to Shania for visiting our little neck of the woods,” reads a post on the Forestiers club’s Facebook page.

Twain left St. Lazare and headed to Columbus, Ohio, for her next show on Friday, Oct. 27. Her tour wraps up in Vancouver on Nov. 14.

Cutline:

Shania Twain was accompanied on a tour of the trails in St. Lazare by Claire Laplante, the director of trail maintenance for the Forestiers equestrian club.

Credit:

Courtesy Claire Laplante

JOSHUA ALLAN
The 1019 Report

With the official opening of a new medical scanning facility in Vaudreuil-Dorion last month, residents of Vaudreuil-Soulanges in need of an MRI no longer have to travel over a bridge, although having private medical insurance will make this option more attractive.

The new Radimed Trois-Lacs clinic – on Dutrisac Street in Vaudreuil-Dorion, is the company’s second location in the municipality and its seventh location in the Greater Montreal area. It officially opened Sept. 26, when it unveiled its new MRI machine.

The magnetic resonance imaging technology represents a “meaningful step” for Radimed and for the region, Dr. Adel Assaf, president and chief medical officer of Radimed, said in a statement.

Local residents have already begun taking advantage of the new clinic, which has been in operation since July 3, as the centre has been receiving hundreds of calls a month, said Nathalie Séguin, Radimed’s director of marketing, research and development.

For years, the Vaudreuil-Soulanges population had been “held hostage” by having to travel to either the Hôpital du Suroît in Valleyfield or the Lakeshore General Hospital in Pointe Claire to get MRI scanning, said Assaf, speaking with The 1019 Report.

“Either they have to go to Valleyfield, which is at least 15-20 minutes away from Vaudreuil, St. Lazare and Hudson, and if they go to the Lakeshore, they have to cross the bridge, and it’s not very nice these days,” Assaf said.

Radimed was the only clinic to be approved by the Quebec government to include a new MRI machine into its services in the past year.

“So, it goes to show that there was a need for such a machine in the area,” Assaf added.

Though patients are unable to use their RAMQ cards to cover the cost of MRI services at Radimed, Assaf pointed out that private insurance “covers at least 80 per cent of the cost of these exams.”

As the Vaudreuil-Soulanges population increases at a rate above the provincial average, so too do the number of people who participate in extracurricular activities, especially youth, Assaf added. As a long-time soccer coach, he said that there are between 6,000 and 7,000 youth who participate in sports across Vaudreuil-Soulanges.

“All these young people, when they get to age 13-14, and they get serious injuries in these sports, they need an MRI to look at the ligaments,” he explained, adding that appointments at Radimed are usually scheduled within a week, greatly benefitting these young athletes.

“Elite players have to wait six months to get an MRI at the Valleyfield hospital, now they can get it fairly fast,” he said.

JOSHUA ALLAN
The 1019 Report

A little piece of St. Lazare history was put on display earlier this month when a clock believed to be more than a century old was put on display in the town’s new town hall.

The wooden clock originally hung on the wall of the St. Lazare train station, back in the day when the town was one of the stops along the passenger rail line that connected the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region with Montreal.

It “bears witness to a part of our town’s history,” said Anick Chevrier, vice-president of the St. Lazare Historical Society.

Built in 1887 along Duhamel Street off the eastern end of Ste. Angèlique Road, the St. Lazare station was one of the stops along the Canadian Pacific Railway line that ran between Montreal and Toronto. Passengers travelled the route up until the 1960s, when the line fell out of service.

In 1978, the decision was made to demolish the station. Nothing remains of it today, Chevrier said, except for a few artifacts that had been carefully preserved by its last station master, Gilles Chevrier (no relation).

These pieces, which include an oil lamp, a railway signal lamp and the station’s clock, had been kept as souvenirs by Gilles Chevrier. They were donated to the St. Lazare Historical Society following his death in 2016.

According to the historical society, the clock had been installed at the station around the same time of the building’s construction.

“So the clock is at least 136 years old,” Anick Chevrier told The 1019 Report.

The city has been enthusiastic about collaborating with the historical society and liked the idea of displaying the clock in the municipal council chamber.

“They found it to be an excellent idea that this beautiful artifact, a witness to our history and our heritage, be prominently displayed,” Chevrier said.

The clock’s new home allows it to be seen and appreciated by as many people as possible, she  said, adding: “It’s all very well to promote our history and heritage, but if our things always remain in the stockroom downstairs, people won’t see them.”

As the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region has seen its population grow at a rate above the provincial average in recent years, Chevrier notes that many young people and newcomers are not aware that the town once had an active train station along the Canadian Pacific Railway.

“There are more and more residents who choose to settle in St. Lazare and who like living in St. Lazare, who have more and more curiosity to learn about how St. Lazare was 30, 50, 100 years ago,” she said.

The clock is accompanied by a plaque, giving vistors a little glimpse into the town’s past.

130-unit housing project part of plan to revamp shopping strip

JOSHUA ALLAN
The 1510 West

A proposed plan that would transform a small rundown shopping plaza in Beaconsfield into a mixed-use commercial development with a highrise residential component that would include 130 units was given preliminary approval last month. Now, residents will have the opportunity to weigh in whether it should be allowed to move forward.

After Beaconsfield council on Sept. 25 approved what has been called “a first draft” of the proposal to redesign the Elm Plaza on 275 Elm Ave., Mayor Georges Bourelle said the project would better meet the housing needs in the municipality.

Developers are envisioning a mix of commercial and new residential space, which would include 13 townhouses and 117 condo units.

Beaconsfield’s aging population, many of whom are looking to downsized, are looking for condo options, Bourelle told The 1510 West. Though a final draft of the proposed project remains to be seen, a development like this would certainly meet this objective, he added.

But some residents are not as sure, expressing their concerns about the project at the Sept. 25 meeting.

Resident Ike Partington warned that the current proposal would “loom” over the existing neighbourhood and contravene several of the municipality’s bylaws.

The plans “don’t contravene our bylaws by centimetres or millimetres,” Partington said. “They are by whole metres, and some of them are multiple metres.”

To respond to these concerns, the project developers have organized a series of public information sessions to offer details and address questions from residents. The first session was held yesterday, with two more meetings planned for tonight, Oct. 18, and tomorrow, Oct. 19, from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Elm Plaza.

Bourelle added that he hopes the information sessions are used by the developers to “get the feeling, the concerns from the residents of the area, and listen to them carefully.”

“Hopefully (the developers) will make some compromises to (their) final design,” Bourelle said.

A spokesperson for the developers did not respond to a request for comment.

Residents also will have the opportunity to express their opinions about the project during a public consultation meeting with city council on Tuesday, Oct. 24.

Councillor Martin St-Jean voted in favour of approving the first draft of the project, but his support should not be considered an endorsement of what could be the final plan.

His ongoing support for the project will depend on whether residents continue to voice opposition following the consultations, he said.

“The reason why I voted in favour of the first draft being adopted is so that the public can actually get to see what is being proposed,” St-Jean explained. “After the public consultation meeting, the project can be tweaked.”

Cutline: Beaconsfield council last month approved the first draft of a plan to transform Elm Plaza into a housing project with 130 units and commercial outlets on the ground floor. Now, the proposal will be opened to public consulations.

Credit: The 1510 West

JOSHUA ALLAN

The 1019 REPORT

A teenager has been arrested and could face charges following a police investigation into threats made on social media that involved Westwood Senior High School in Hudson late last month.

The threatening messages posted online led to Westwood Senior High School in Hudson keeping its doors closed Wednesday, Sept. 27, as a “precautionary measure,” said school officials. Students and staff were asked to stay home as Sûreté du Québec officers conducted an investigation, which led to the arrest of one teenage suspect. The nature of the threats was not disclosed. Westwood Junior High School was not affected.

Students and staff at Westwood Senior returned to the classroom on Thursday, Sept. 28, after the SQ determined that it would be safe to do so.

“On Tuesday evening, there were certain social media posts that were flagged and, as a result of those, the school contacted the school board and both parties contacted the Sûreté du Québec,” explained Darren Becker, a spokesperson for the Lester B. Pearson School Board. As the police investigation continued, the decision was made to keep the school closed for the day.

“As you are aware, we were closed today as a precautionary measure to ensure the safety of our students and staff following threats that were made on-line,” read a post to the school’s Instagram page on Wednesday written by Westwood Senior High School principal Elaine Fraser. “The (Pearson school board) has been collaborating fully with the Quebec Provincial Police following the threats.”

“We kindly request your attention and mindfulness when it comes to comments and posts on social media,” the post continued. “In today’s interconnected world, the things we say and share online can have a profound impact on our children and their well-being.”

The school also shared this message through letters and emails sent directly to parents, further clarifying the situation and reasoning behind the closure.

“The teen who wrote those (threats) was arrested pretty soon after,” said Louis-Philippe Ruel, a public relations officer with the SQ.

Neither the school nor the SQ offered information about the juvenile suspect. Nor would either source confirm whether the suspect was a student at the school.

Charges against the youth have yet to be confirmed with the Directeur des poursuites criminelles et pénales. However, Ruel explained that uttering threats is expected to be among them.

“There are support teams from the school and the school board, in terms of if anyone needed psychological support, or anyone who needed any kind of support,” Becker said, adding that these services will be ongoing.

The school’s Instagram post from principal Fraser also included a message to the parents of students: “Should your child need assistance following this event, please contact us so we can help ensure support is provided.”

JOSHUA ALLAN
The 1019 Report

The town of St. Lazare is updating its pesticide bylaw, banning a wider range of products and extending the regulations limiting their use to private companies involved in landscaping and ground maintenance.

The aim of the move is to protect the health of residents and safeguard against contaminating the town’s water supply, according to St. Lazare Mayor Geneviève Lachance.

“The presence of pesticides and fertilizers in water sources can lead to potential health risks for residents in your municipality,” Lachance said, explaining that St. Lazare relies on ground sources for its water supply.

St. Lazare council last month unveiled the proposed updates to its original pesticide bylaw, which was adopted 23 years ago. It was scheduled to vote to approve the latest updates at yesterday evening’s council meeting.

“It’s high time that we update this bylaw,” Lachance said during the Sept. 12 town council meeting.

The bylaw update comes following recommendations to ban the use of neonicotinoids, glyphosate and other pesticides. Neonicotinoids are insecticides that are absorbed by plants that leave residues in pollen and nectar, making them toxic to bees, while glyphosates are herbicides commonly used on lawns and gardens.

These recommendations were made by the town’s environmental committee and environmental protection groups MARE – Mouvement d’action regional en environnement – and Mères au Front. The two organizations had produced a study on pesticide usage in the town of Ormstown, southwest of Valleyfield, leading to that municipality adopting a bylaw in 2022 banning the use of these substances, Lachance said.

This led Lachance to invite the groups to study the use of pesticides in St. Lazare, she explained.

Lyne Mousseau, who heads St. Lazare’s environmental department, said the study was used as the basis to update the town’s old pesticide bylaw “considering that many companies are involved in grounds maintenance in St. Lazare and apply products without authorization.”

Extending the restrictions of pesticide and herbicide products is a step in the right direction to better protect the environment, said Catherine Décarie, president of the Société d’horticulture et d’environnement de Saint-Lazare.

“I applaud the city for wanting to be more restrictive in applying these pesticides,” Décarie said. “Because at the end of the day, these pesticides trickle down into our water table.

“Bottom line, people need to wake up and understand that if they keep putting chemicals on their property, at the end, they might be drinking it,” she added.

Décarie, who is a volunteer with the David Suzuki Foundation’s Butterflyway Project, also pointed to the importance of protecting pollinators by eliminating the use of harmful pesticides.

“We all know today that pollinators are essential for our food,” Décarie said. “There’s been a decline of roughly 75 per cent in the past decade of pollinators. And a big part of the problem is herbicides and pesticides.”

Lachance said the municipality will provide information to residents, as some have been misled when it comes to the use of certain insecticide and herbicide brands that market their products as “natural,” which gives a false impression about how these chemicals impact the environment.

“They say it’s natural and safe. But it’s a poison, it’s killing insects,” including pollinators, she said.

The town will launch an awareness campaign aimed at educating residents regarding the use of pesticides and fertilizers over the next few months, Lachance added.