On Monday, January 29, DémocraCité joined forces with the Municipal Protection Committees of Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Île-Bizard and Ste-Geneviève. A press conference will be held at the Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue Town Hall, 109 Ste-Anne Street, at 10:30AM.
Pierre Bourke and the Quebec Government intend to reduce services to the lowest common denominator, increase taxes and user fees to pay for an expanded version of the most inefficient administration on the island, decrease local representation, and obliterate the history, institutions and distinct character of our communities. Fortunately they cannot accomplish this overnight. In the meantime, Quebec's rapidly changing political landscape presents us with ample opportunity to force the retraction of Bill 170. NOW is the time to act.
8/Dec/2000 Both ´Phones Take Megaphone Against a Megacity
By JAMES BROOKE 
Nationalists believe they are on the verge of exacting revenge on the
anglophone enclave of Westmount, Quebec. The provincial assembly
plans to approve a bill that would forcibly merge Westmount into a
Montreal megacity. Ny Times www.nytimes.com/2000/12/08/world/08QUEB.html
12/04/2000 MONTREAL EXPANSION RIPPED AS POWER GRAB
.boston.com/ By Colin Nickerson, Staff WESTMOUNT,
Quebec - The signs bristle on the expensively groomed yards of the
mock-Tudor mansions high on Mount Royal's west summit, on the
doors of the handsome brick townhouses at mid-slope, and in the
windows of the elegant shops below: "Ne touchez pas a MA ville."
Ask not what we can do but ... On 75,000, of you did and we had a great turn out! But we must not let up now .. we must go for stop.
On December 3, Mayor Trent made a presentation to the committee of Liberal MNA’s studying municipal reform.
Among his points:
- Bill 170 should be scrapped; it was not possible to improve it sufficiently by amendments.
- The transition committee was undemocratic as it allowed unelected officials to control spending.
- Plenipotentiaries from Quebec would control the existing municipalities in 2001.
- Forced mergers on the scale proposed must have been the government's intention because the comprehensive nature of Bill 170 could not have been written in the few weeks between the Bernard Report's publication and depositing the bill. Bernard had been used to chloroform the island into thinking than an honorable compromise was possible.
- Premier Bouchard and Minister Harel had claimed that suburban mayors were being merged because of their lack of cooperation over the Bernard plan. In fact he and others had met repeatedly with Louis Bernard. On the other hand, North Shore mayors had refused to meet Bernard yet had not been merged at all.
- An earlier Parti Quebeçois government had forced Westmount to increase the number of councillors from six to eight; this PQ government was wanting to reduce them to two.
- The cost of Westmount's politicians was 0.5% of budget; Montreal's was 1.4%. Where was the proposed saving?
- Westmount had an infrastructure to support 20,000 people, but would be asked to support 100,000 or more if Bill 170 were implemented.
thaks to Don Wedge Westmount Explained c/o [wexplain@web.ca]
...government has already decided to remove the new city council's power to strip boroughs of any or all of their responsibilities with a two-thirds majority vote - a power many argued would leave boroughs as empty shells. "That will be withdrawn. ... There can be adjustments to the bill," she said.
"This has nothing to do with democracy," she said. "The opponents simply want a veto right to maintain the status quo."
[Those who can only say: "We have 'a right" or "We must be consulted" ... are not helping the debate. Those who argue concrete issues such as higher taxes for diminished services are doing a good and important job. We see some effects .. we have kept our police station and our fire fighters (who do perform extras such as sucking out our flooded basements and getting a cat out of a tree. Westmount may keep our security people etc etc. For this and other smaller blessings, we must thank our good Mayor Peter Trent and his team. But we must keep up the pressure and
we need the support of ALL our citizens including the owners of the big houses with the biggest tax bills .. a rise of $5,000 or more per annum. If they care!]
Harel was given a standing ovation [5 min] by most of the crowd [a full room the size of a football field] at the lunch, with the exception of the few suburban mayors and city councillors in attendance {seated in the very back of the hall]. The president of the Union of Suburban Municipalities of Montreal Island, Verdun Mayor Georges Bosse, boycotted the lunch. [Peter Trent was also - rightly - absent]
Sunday December the 10th demonstration 75,000 people [looked like about 100k] - far more than the one at Fairview Centre in Pointe Claire on Sunday, where as many as 18,000 people protested. ... merger opponent Cynthia Lulham said size doesn't matter when it comes to voicing opposition.
Please click here for Media notes on this Merger. We have collected press clips from the CBC and other News Media. Updated hourly.. or when ever!
CBC: "Westmount TAX will go up 5% a year!"
This is WAR
See a very good photo by rjmcm of Westmount City Hall
lt by G.W.T. Nicholson
Other Westmount DTN photos
webshots at dthebaud for more Photos & copies
Margaret Lefebvre-Walker has done a great job of reducing the 700 page Bernard Report to 7 readable pages BERNARD Summary.doc 65K
Peter Trent & Karan Marks
or Please phone (541) 934-0023 ;){kind=link}
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by Herbert