See our first Surround Pan of "la cucina" at 388 Victoria

Kathryn Quilico and Peter F. Trent aka Mayor Hon. Eustache Prud'homme, senator

John Vago

#895 Mega-City

Wednesday-Night #894 Water

Now Full Colonel Peter Trent

Please see Col Peter F. Trent site for lots of new stories

Mayors abhore mergers ..Why not one big city?

The 3rd Roper Letter will be on the table this Wednesday Night

Montréal City 'Stories' Let's give Mayor B a chance to sell us

Prof Desmond Morton

Des Morton writes to subject of Mega City May 1999

June 10, 1999

BREAD AND CIRCUSES…AND DEBT AND TRUSTEESHIP

With all this talk of amalgamation, no one has explained just how getting bigger will improve the deplorable management of the City of Montreal - and that's whether we're talking one island, one city, or one island, five cities. (Now that the Provincial government has discovered that francophones only make up 53.8% of the Island population, and that number will soon drop below the magic 50%, it seems Quebec is (predictably) getting cold feet about having just one mayor ruling such a polyglot realm. It would become too big an impure-woollen power base.)

Bad management seems to have dogged Montreal over the years. Montreal in this century has been run by a series of populist mayors who spent money on extravagant projects, and whose city as a consequence regularly got put into trusteeship by the Provincial government. Médéric Martin, the mayor from 1914 to 1928, started this profligate tradition. He headed such a corrupt and bankrupt administration that the government stepped in, made him a figurehead, and ran the city from 1918 to 1921.

History repeated itself when Camillien Houde became mayor in 1928. He was in power - off and on - until 1954. He, too, ruled over a corrupt administration. The government put the city under trusteeship twice during his mandate. The second time, in 1940, the city was so much in debt that it could not redeem its maturing bonds.

With Jean Drapeau's election in 1954, the free-spending ways continued. He started to build the métro in 1961 before he got any sort of financial aid from the province or the suburbs. He got bailed out of Expo 67's overruns by a Federal government that contributed 75% of the cost. Then there were the costly children of Expo: remember Man and His World? And the fact that Montreal just had to have (and support) a baseball team? And then, shortly before the Olympics were to take place, the provincial government had to step in and take over Drapeau's grandiose plans and shaky management. Even though the government bailed out Montreal and picked up most of the billion-dollar tab, Montrealers still got stuck with a bill for $200 million.

A more subtle form of trusteeship was the creation of the MUC in 1970, which was Quebec's way of taking the police away from Montreal. This was the government's response to violent protests, both by police who felt they were underpaid compared to Toronto cops, and, later, by police and firemen furious with the city for holding back pension funds. The police actually going on strike was the final straw.

Even if personally austere, Drapeau had an extravagant, secretive, and autocratic political style. That, and the ravaging of the city's architectural heritage, led to the rise of Jean Doré. But spending, fuelled this time by out-of-date leftist doctrine, continued apace. Socialism replaced imperialism. Even if well-meaning, Doré's party wanted to spend their way to prosperity.

To be continued.

Desmond Morton

ONLY QUEBEC CAN HELP MONTREAL

As I make my rounds visiting influential Westmounters, enlisting their help to ensure Westmount does not get swallowed up by Montreal, many echo the same thought: whatever happens, we must come to the aid of Montreal.

Well, it's Quebec and its ignorance of Montreal that has helped cause the mess Montreal finds itself in; in other words, the way to get the city back on its feet requires a sea change in provincial government legislation and policy - which means getting away from their obsession with the regions. Let me explain. There are two main causes of Montreal's sorry state: urban sprawl and bad city management. Quebec can help on both counts.

Quebec has actively encouraged urban sprawl in the Montreal region through the dezoning of agricultural land, by subsidising off-island housing, by over-building of highways, and by wiping out funding for public transit.

Quebec also has the power to create the conditions under which good management can flourish in Montreal. Let me count the ways:

• Modify labour laws to have a fair balance of power and to get rid of such aberrations as Montreal having to hire a minimum number of blue collars whether they're needed or not.
• Get rid of the political party system. Parties spring up almost overnight; usually their only reason to exist is to act as a claque for their leader. Councillors should vote with their conscience, not with their party.
• Stop Montreal from being the poverty magnet for the province. As the Bédard report recommended, low cost housing should be regionally distributed, not mainly concentrated in the city of Montreal.
• Abolish the enabling legislation that hinders condominium conversion. With three-quarters of Montreal voters being tenants - the highest ratio in North America - there needs to be a greater portion of owners.
• Require that citizens of Montreal be given veto power over zoning amendments and loan by-laws. In any other city, the authority to borrow for new projects can be rejected by a referendum if enough citizens wish.
• Cut the power of the Executive Committee and permit decentralisation of not just public consultation, but of the delivery of services.
• Quebec must rid itself of the notion that mergers are a cure. Sweeping Montreal's problems under a bigger rug won't make them go away.
  

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  Saturday 1 May 1999 The megacityWith the publication of the Bedard report, the Montreal region is staring at a possible massive merger of towns. Toronto is living the megacity experience now. Is it a dream or a nightmare?SARAH SCOTT
  

  Saturday 1 May 1999 Mayors in a fighting mood Forget details, they say. Taxes are the issue if we get a megacity DARREN BECKER ... We don't need amalgamations because over the years, residents and municipal officials have built a happy, healthy and safe environment and the end result is that we enjoy a nice quality of life that is affordable through cost controls, consultation and involvement of the people, Yeomans said. Amalgamations remain a four-letter word for the mayors.

  Montreal West Mayor John Simms said they would destroy the "little things," which include community spirit, better municipal services and, most importantly, lower tax rates
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  

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  September 29, 1999 #917 Jean-Louis Massé, Actuary & VP Standard Life ..ONE CITY Mayor Trent's debate Jean-Pierre Collin campaign of slogans Une ile, une ville, une poubelle ..Guy Coulombe?? REED SCOWEN'S BOOK Bernard Landry [did he lose our guest book?] ..John Charest ..move of Nova bus = no alarm ...TSE stocks are cheap ..China will avoid devaluation
  

  Warren Allmand

  Wed911 Water may be revisited with Judith Patterson Warren Allmand, - A SIX-MONTH MORATORIUM, Great Lakes, Tony Deutsch, Tony Masi, George Cavadias and ..water ..may trigger NAFTA
  
  
  

  Not to be disguised but if you have nothing else to do do see ours on Quebec's Office de la Langue Francaise's jokes
  
  
  
  

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  A night to reflect. Click for theThe 900th June 9th
  
  
  

  See our first Surround Pan of "la cucina" at 388 Victoria
  
  

  360° PAN of a Wednesday-Night 850 Zoom in out and around ... FUN

  
  
  "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."
  --Oscar Wilde

  Thanks to our Montréal GAZETTE

  which brings us
  

  Montréal Online a job well done by The Gazette

  
  

  Monday, June 07, 1999 Free trade's architects hail their own legacy Terence Corcoran, Financial Post Editor National Post [so they should! DTN]

  One Stock Exchange??

  Box-office greed
  RUN FOR THE TURNSTILES Show-goers get burned by summer as ticket prices go through the roof. But fans seem only too willing to pay $115 for theatre seats and $150 to see a double bill featuring Bob Dylan and Paul Simon. LEAH McLAREN The Globe and Mail Saturday, June 12, 1999

  Banks a should see
  
  

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  do see our Super Medical Web
  

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  Immigration minister to announce overhaul plan
  Please see National Post Including a Dr. Margaret Somerville story
  
  

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  you can also find all topics/persons on our Map on contributors
  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Wed883DesMorton.htm paradox of history in Canada with Dr. Desmond Morton, "Giving the Past a Future", Pierre Bossé, Bob Milne, Uncle Hughie, Lili St. Cyr Real HISTORY

  Dr. Howard Chertkow

  Wed882JacqueC.htm with Jacques Changnon MNA ,Tony Deutsch, Couchiching Winter MLL, Armed forces protected our heritage?, Richard Pound Chancellor of McGill, Alzheimer drug case, proportional representation .. Marianna Simeone, North American currency
  
  
  

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  How to write a C.V. and find a JOB in the computer age by Herbert Bercovitz
  
  

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  click for a pan of the 850 Wed. night room
  
  

  360° PAN of a Wednesday-Night Zoom in out and around ... FUN
  Must have your Java on
  
  
  Chart any US Stocks yourself in JAVA MetaStock
  
  
  

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