Boroughs

Tuesday, April 5th, 2011 - Michael Labelle, Projet Montréal's 2009 candidate for Pierrefonds-Roxboro mayor, has been following closely the Mayor Monique Worth and Councillor Bertrand Ward's reimbursement of personal expenses in the last years. He was invited to appear on TVA Nouvelles to present his findings. According to him, many thousands of dollars have been reimbursed to Mayor Monique Worth for personal experses, and Councillor Bertrand Ward has been reimbursed for use of his cellphone during his frequent visits to Florida.

Watch TVA Nouvelles' Yves Poirier's report with Michael Labelle, ex candidate of Projet Montréal in Pierrefonds-Roxboro: "Ils refilaient la note aux contribuables", which aired on April 5th, 2011.

Thursday June 3, 2010

By The Projet Montréal Team

The Tremblay administration washes greener than green. However, every time a developer threatens to vanquish the last remaining natural areas on the Island, or to bite off one of its valuable parks, citizens have to come together and fight an epic battle with the hope of being heard. In the Marianopolis case, our voices were heard and we prevailed: no new development shall be allowed. But in the matter of Meadowbrook, Jarry Park and the Anselme-Lavigne Woods, nothing is less certain.  You want to join in on our efforts? Write us!

Condos on the Meadowbrook golf course?

The gorgeous Meadowbrook golf course has been spotted by a real estate developer who wants to build 1,500 residential units on it. On April 22, 2010, Projet Montréal tabled a motion that aimed to protect the site and the brook that runs through it. Union Montréal and Vision Montréal opposed this motion!

See also:A rally to save Meadowbrook attracts 500 in front of City Hall. (article, April 26, 2010)

Two construction projects in Jarry Park

Expansion of the Neighbourhood police station 31

Villeray-St-Michel-Parc Extension Mayoress, Anie Samson of Vision Montréal, and all Union Montréal councillors except one, support the construction of a new building right in Jarry Park that would bundle all of the services provided by the Neighbourhood police. Projet Montréal is opposed to the use of park grounds for the construction or expansion of buildings.

To learn more:

Jarry Park shrunk to expand Police Station 31 June 2, 2010 press release (in French only)

Projet Montréal motion against the use of Jarry Park grounds for the expansion of Police Station 31 June 14, 2010 (in French only)

Projet Montréal Memorandum against the construction of buildings on park grounds and in Park Jarry specifically June 10, 2010

Latest news on the expansion project Friends of Jarry Park website

Expansion of the Uniprix Stadium

The borough administration also supports Tennis Canada’s plans to raise the walls of the Uniprix Stadium from 13 to 22 meters, which is higher than the trees!

An endangered woodland in Pierrefonds

One of the last remaining untamed sites on the island of Montreal is being plundered. The stakes: 5 acres of black maple and other vulnerable species described in the Québec Biodiversity Atlas. Get more information by reading the article Plea for Pierrefonds’s Anselme-Lavigne Woods.

David Fletcher of the Green Coalition led about 30 participants on a nature walk through a small, threatened wooded area at the corner of Anselme Lavigne and Richmond Streets in Pierrefonds on May 16. Within minutes of starting his tour, Fletcher pointed out rare black maples (Acer nigrum). “There are hardly any black maples in Quebec, but five-acre woodland is full of them. In the Quebec Biodiversity Atlas, black maple is the number one species designated for protection.”

Black maples are common in other parts of the continent, but in Quebec can be found basically only on Montreal and Laval (Jesus) Islands and nearby. Even here they are quite rare. Fletcher pointed out other endangered species from the Quebec Biodiversity Atlas, including white trillium, bellwort, wild ginger, and bloodroot. He said that wild leeks grew there, too. “But Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough council allowed a special-care home project to clear-cut part of the woodland in April--and this despite 2010 being the International Year of Biodiversity. The borough council wants to develop the whole woodland and refuses to recognize that there are any species worth saving here; I don’t think there is anything worth saving on Pierrefonds borough council!”

(Mayor Monique Worth has made the “nothing worth saving [in Anselme Lavigne Woods] quote to CBC radio on April 27 and has since repeated it to the West End Times.)

Fletcher stopped near the end of his walk to point out two mature maple trees growing side by side, but with very different bark. “The one on the right with rough bark is a sugar maple,” he explained. “The smoother-barked tree is a black maple. How clear does this need to be?”

Fletcher, a retired high school teacher, recounts leading class biology trips to this woodland over past decades, giving his students valuable hands-on learning experience. Over that time, he also watched the woodland behind Pierrefonds Polytechnic shrink drastically in size. Now a steam shovel prominently stands beside newly-poured foundation walls of the special-care home in the last 5-acre remnant of the woodland. Last Sunday, a former student whom Fletcher had not seen for 30 years joined him on the walk.

Fletcher refutes conventional wisdom that it makes economic sense to build more houses on the last remaining wild lands around Montreal, claiming that if left as green space, these areas add value to adjacent housing. He also points out that Montreal Island has a great abundance of “brown lands” or former industrial sites that are relatively easy to decontaminate and build on. “They shouldn’t be building here,” asserts Fletcher.

There are also significant health benefits from saving green spaces according to Montreal physician, Stephen Vida who emailed us. “Recent studies from Holland, England, Japan and other countries have found better health measures, including better self-reported health, fewer mental and physical symptoms, fewer documented health problems, less obesity, and even decreased mortality among urban populations who live near green spaces than among those who do not. This seems especially true among socio-economically and educationally disadvantaged populations. Researchers in England have even suggested that urban green space may help decrease some of the health inequalities that are associated with socioeconomic factors. These and other studies bring forward important health reasons why green space should be a major priority in any city's urban plan."

Pierrefonds-Roxboro councillor Bert Ward previously told The Gazette that “there were more thick bushes than trees” on the area that was clear-cut last month although that remark seems to have no bearing on species protection. Ward also said that some measures were taken to preserve trees on the property, but there was no mention of protecting rare understory plants.

More information on this issue can be found at The Pierrefonds-Roxboro Proprietors & Residents Association blog: http://aprpr.org/?cat=54