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Wednesday Night #916
September 22, 1999THE INVITATION
David:
Martin Barnes
Martin Barnes is bringing as his guest David Cook who, as a practitioner of commercial real estate, "might be able to say something about the Montreal economy" which, Martin adds, "I know is a subject dear to your heart". We are looking forward to this discussion and hope that you will join us for it.
David Cook 
e-mail BCA Martin Barnes
DAVID AND DIANA NICHOLSON
916
THE SALON
Wednesday Night, September 22nd'99Despite an invitation issued at the last minute,the response in terms of quality and quantity of guests and debate was impressive.
Debate was the order of the day at the Nicholsons' on Wednesday evening September 22, 1999. Debate on what's at stake for whom in the lawsuit against Philip Morris, on the state of the Montréal real estate market, as well as the ongoing debate on the plan for pan-island amalgamation of Montréal Island municipalities.
New faces around the table, in addition to Douglas Cook, included Allan Patrick, Special Advisor to Mayor Bourque for the anglophone communities, Jeremy Searle (very) independent City Councillor for the Loyola District of Montreal and a member of the Commission du développement urbain de Montréal, Stephanie Miller of the McConnell Foundation, Dr. Baird Smith, a pediatric surgeon formerly of Montreal and McGill, now practicing in California and James Reford, son of old friend and former Wednesday Nighter, Boris. We were also happy to have Fred Miles back on a brief visit from British Columbia after a long absence.
James RefordReed Scowen's arrival reminded the assembly that his new book is to be launched next Tuesday, the 28th. He promises to hold a private "meet the author" and signing evening on a Wednesday Night early in November. Meantime, wait for the reviews and expect the material to be controversial (says Julius Grey who has read several chapters).
Reed ScowenTOBACCO:
The Debate:Tobacco is a hazardous substance. The government realizes this and is attempting to slowly choke off the industry without suffering the impact of sudden loss of government revenue that would result from its immediate removal from the market.
The general public including non-smokers are funding the treatment of self-inflicted tobacco related disease.
Smokers pay disproportionately heavy taxes the proceeds of which are directed to non-smokers.
No other form of dangerous activity such as motorcycling, skydiving or bungee jumping is so restricted.
Fuel emissions cause as much respiratory disease and human damage as smoking.
Proposed solutions:
Remove smoking-related diseases from medicare.
Rigidly control the nicotine content of cigarettes.
REAL ESTATE:
Despite a brisk market in residential real estate, the industrial and commercial markets in Montréal are a disaster. We will never see another multi-user office building built here in our lifetime. Rents in prime space have dropped from seventeen [$17.00] to seven and a half dollars [$7.50] per square foot. Companies are leaving or not being attracted to Montréal because of several factors.
- The problems caused by the O.L.F., including software requirements.
- The exported vision of Montréal as a unilingual French city.
- The inefficiency of both the Montréal and Québec bureaucracies.
- Nationalism has its price and the question to be answered is whether or not it is worth the price.
- But there are many small useless laws that have nothing to do with langue or Canada.
Rents are cheap, but rental rates are the yardstick of success rather than a determining factor in location or relocation.
Montréal is a wonderful island on which to live, no major earthquakes in recent years, a multilingual population and workforce, excellent universities, excellent multilingual translation services, personal safety and security, good quality of life, easy access to nature.
Proposed Solution:
Promote the island of Montréal for what it is rather than what the Provincial government would like it to be. Emphasize that it is a warm, inviting, secure place to live and work with the advantage of being the only truly multilingual, multicultural community outside of Europe, where French is the predominant language but not the obligatory language, e.g. in Julius Grey's words: "None must, some may, all should".
Julius GreyIt was noted that things are changing, especially for certain sectors which have been identified as high priority because of the investment and job creation new companies can bring. However this does smack of the Orwellian "some are more equal than others".
CARE:
The Québec medicare system is disintegrating. Professionals are leaving to work in the United States where remuneration is much higher.The universal system we have here is undemocratic. People who need and can pay for medical care should not be prevented from doing so.
(Editor's note: on this subject, Josée Legault had a good column in the Saturday Gazette. N/F)The much criticized system in the United States covers most of the population including the indigent and the elderly.
Dr. Baird SmithThere is no relationship between longevity and health costs.
The British system imposes the obligation on practitioners to see public as well as private patients.
The government of Québec has systematically siphoned off money from its medical care budget. Being the largest expense item for the government made it the easiest target. There were problems but much better service and less discontent before the Rochon reforms, the intent of which was good,
Dr. Mark Roper
- Removed large sums of money from the system
- Reduced the class size in medical schools
- Set the maximum number of physicians on staff at each hospital in the province
- Made it extremely difficult for physicians trained outside Québec to practice here.
- Sharply reduced budgets of health care institutions, except for CLSCs which were burdened with additional responsibilities exceeding their increased budget.
- Lowered the ceiling on physicians' maximum income, making us uncompetitive.
A two-tier system already exists in Québec. Any citizen can go to the United States for treatment at his own expense, but relatively few do because of the cost, a cost which is probably comparable to what it would be here if we adopted their system.
Health care can never be considered as a free-enterprise market, because there is not free entry into the market, wisely so because to do otherwise might invite unscrupulous practitioners to fabricate treatment for disease not as yet discovered or at best, to treat diseases where treatment might be postponed indefinitely.
J.P.B.Possible Solutions:
The problems experienced today were far less important when the government of Canada shared cost of providing health care provided certain criteria were met. What is required is the return to the principle of comprehensive, universal health care as an insurance plan run by the government, properly funded, if necessary by increased premiums that do NOT find their way into the general revenue fund of the provinces.MONTRÉAL - UNE ÎLE, UNE VILLE
The Debate:There is a sense of social justice that requires the righting of the fiscal imbalance involved in the poor paying for the rich.
Without amalgamation, we remain a series of ghettos. Boston has overcome this.
Fiscal problems require fiscal solutions. They cannot be solved by structural solutions. A city that is a financial basket case cannot be improved by absorbing more efficient communities. Regional tax sharing on the basis of the same level of performance is possible and should be encouraged.
J.R.While we are frequently subjected to glowing accounts of the success of the Toronto mega-city, let us look to Greater Boston which is in fact, an admirable example of a group of over a hundred separate communities that co-exist to co-operatively make it the successful region that it is. One which our politicians tell us we should emulate in so many respects.
There is a sometimes forgotten principle that the citizens of an area should have the right to democratically determine their own destiny.
The larger the municipal entity, the more physically and interpersonally distant, unresponsive and anonymous the elected and hired officials become. In Westmount and other of the target municipalities, each citizen knows how to reach, talk to or meet his or her councillor or mayor.
Jeremy Searle
Monday, January 28, 2002Speeding south on Peel St. yesterday afternoon, the sedan with a Montreal Canadiens emblem taped to its grille ran the red light in a bid to be first across Ste. Catherine St.
The motorist came within inches of cars squeezed into the middle of one of Montreal's busiest intersections and brushed past pedestrians ambling across the road, apparently indifferent to the changing of the traffic light.
It's a fairly typical downtown scene and one that gives cause to wonder if city Councillor Jeremy Searle is delusional.
Searle says he believes that with some effort and "not much money," Montreal can be made safe for pedestrians. His committee will be holding public hearings to that end this spring.
Even as pedestrians dashed from between parked cars and motorists hurled their cars through the Peel St. crosswalk south of Ste. Catherine yesterday, Searle maintained his optimism.
'Urban Myth'
"It's an urban myth in Montreal that you can't make a crosswalk safe," said the recently appointed chairman of the city council's committee on transport, services to citizens and relations with cultural communities.
The first thing to be done is change thinking about the issue. Currently, Montreal's traffic department is well-named: "Its goal is to make the traffic circulate (freely); pedestrian safety is thought to slow that down," he said.
At the Peel-Ste. Catherine intersection, for example, Searle would not allow turns onto Ste. Catherine; vehicles would have to stay on Peel. And large grids would be painted in advance of the stop line for motorists.
"In most parts of the world, there's a whopping big fine if you are stopped in that grid when the lights change. You have to make sure you can exit it before you enter," he said.
With the proper signs and a little law enforcement, Searle said, pedestrian crosswalks can work. Crosswalks need large pictograms along with signs that indicate the size of the fine motorists face for not respecting them, he said.
"Then police can park on the other side of the crosswalk and give out tickets without problem," he said.
Road-narrowing techniques - such as the planting of posts to funnel traffic - should be used to ensure that vehicles can't overtake one another at crosswalks and strike pedestrians who aren't visible to the drivers behind the stopped cars, he said.
If the intention to protect pedestrians is made clear, motorists will respect the rules, Searle insisted.
"When seat belts became mandatory, it was a big issue here at first. ... Now we have pretty much the highest observance in North America."
Searle is opposed to allowing motorists on the island of Montreal to turn right on red lights.
"Montreal motorists don't understand or respect their current responsibilities," he said.
- Searle's seven-member committee is to begin hearings in March or April. For more information, Searle can be reached at (514) 483-2561.
Possible Solution:
Reorganize the tax burden in order to adequately compensate Montréal for services provided and for the inequity of income of its citizens.
Widen the mandate of the MUC to include other shared services.
Encourage municipalities to merge or share services when and where mutually advantageous.
While not sharing in the vision of his Mayor, all agreed with Allan Patrick that in this debate we must be wary of leaving the debate to the incompetence of Québec bureaucrats. Editor's Note: THE NEXT EVENT IN THE CONTINUING DEBATE ON AMALGAMATION WILL TAKE PLACE AT MCGILL ON TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 28TH AT 4:15 PM, ROOM 260 MCGILL ARTS BUILDING, COURTESY OF DR.DES MORTON. PETER TRENT WILL OPPOSE THE MOTION (NOTION?). WHILE MAYOR BOURQUE COURTS THE HOLLYWOOD MOVIE MAKERS, HIS CASE WILL BE DEFENDED BY ONE OF THE AUTHORS OF THE BEDARD REPORT. ALL ARE WELCOME.
Saturday 25 September 1999 Bourque welcomes merger debate CHARLIE FIDELMAN Pierre Bourque had a message yesterday for suburban mayors opposed to his one-island one-city plan: you're going to have to learn to share. While welcoming a public debate as a good idea, Bourque also insisted that the proposed merger of Montreal Island cities "is the path of the future."
Mayor on star trek He's off to la-la land looking for movie cash PEGGY CURRAN Pierre Bourque's Hollywood Diary: How good it feels to get away at last. And without reporters! It's been forever since that last trip to China. Those tiresome suburban mayors have really been getting on my case lately. I can tell they are up to no good, threatening to hire a PR firm. Though it does seem a shame to leave town just when the premier and the municipal affairs minister have finally seen the wisdom of my "one-island, one-city" concept
WHERE IS THE STOCK MARKET HEADED?
"How DO you value the stock market" is the basic question.
Prof Tony DeutschThis is a risky time. The poison to the market is rising interest rates and the interest rate is rising. When Technical stocks are stripped out of the equation, the market is flat. Oil price increases often foreshadow a declining market. Future oil prices are difficult to predict because although OPEC members have been hanging together, when prices begin to rise there is a tendency to cheat.
The recovery of Asia leads to money being repatriated into the Asian markets and thus pressure on interest rates in the U.S. The recent good news for the United States has been the result of bad news elsewhere.
The Dow will be very nervous until the yearend and more especially this year because of the Y2K factor (even if it turns out not to be a factor). Beyond that is a mystery at this time.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
- "It's not a question of wealth. People (in Montréal) don't feel wealthy."
- "When people say 'this time it is different' it's time to head for the hills" (with reference to new theories on the market).
- "I thought that the 'formidable opponent' introduced by (Father) David Oliver could only be Lucifer".
Editor's Note: While our scribe very correctly does not include the more personal side of the discussion, I would like to thank each and every one of those who made such very kind comments on the occasion of my 39th birthday, and I will never forget Julius Grey's reference to Catherine Deneuve! [Chair agrees!] And tanks to Elizabeth Wojtowicz for her card.
John CiacciaHOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE in our medical file.
Diana Thébaud & Tipan
Wed915Margo
Herbert Bercovitz & Fred Miles
Notes by Herbert Bercovitz
Edited by Diana Thébaud Nicholson
Thank you to Andrew de Courcy-Ireland for the comments in theStk Forecasts page
or Stk forecast Banks
see Margaret Lefebvre-Walker RUNSEE our Y2k site
We have found a 800k computer program to test/fix your computer which you can get FREE at our Y2k page One of the computers at Wednesday-Night.com is ok the other needs help. Remember all you need to do if all else fails is set your date to the year 1972. It is the same as 2000!
Prof Tony Deutsch
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Reed Scowen
Read about Reed Scowen's new book
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