Press Release
Local Leadership to Urge National Assembly on Future of Cote Saint-Luc, Hampstead, Montreal West
Brief presented by former Mayor and Councillors.
Cote Saint-Luc, September 22, 2003: Former elected officials from the former municipalities of Cote Saint-Luc, Hampstead and Montreal West have joined forces in preparing a brief on Bill 9 to be presented Tuesday, September 23, 2003 before the Commission de l’amenagement du territoire at the National Assembly.
The brief is co-signed by former Hampstead Mayor Irving Adessky and Councillor Abe Gonshor, former Montreal West Mayor John Simms and Councillor Howard Barza, and former Cote Saint-Luc Councillors Mitchell Brownstein, Ruth Kovac and Glenn J. Nashen. The brief will be presented in the Legislative Council Room at the National Assembly at 16h30 (Sept. 23, 2003) by Adessky, Barza and Brownstein, symbolically representing the three former municipal councils.
“We have all served our respective communities for many, many years,” said Irving Adessky, who served as Mayor of Hampstead from 1974 until the merger on January 1, 2002. “We strongly believe our residents want their cities and towns reconstituted,” he said. Speaking on behalf of the group, Adessky added that it was their belief that the characteristics of a free and democratic government is to have free and independent cities and towns.
A resume of the brief regarding Bill 9 is as follows:
1) Register to be opened in each former municipality town hall or, school or public building;
2) Provision be made to assist seniors living in senior residences and in hospital residences;
3) Registers be opened for five (5) consecutive days from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and on a weekend day;
4) Update electoral lists to ensure no errors and their accuracy;
5) Register and referendum to be held in spring months in 2004;
6) Information viz. Register, signing location etc. to be sent to each eligible voter – fifteen (15) days prior to opening registers;
7) Threshold of ten percent (10%) of qualified voters for referendum is high;
8) Referendum question must be clear and unambiguous;
9) No cost sharing by reconstituted municipality;
10) Role of Transition Committee in tandem with borough councillors;
11) Regional Bodies to operate regional services; fire services and first responders to be left to municipality;
12) Threshold for bilingual status based on the language of use or the language of use in the home.
The committee has also contacted other similar groups throughout the province with an eye to forming a coalition of former municipalities for demerger. Thus far meetings have included several former Mayors and Councillors and interested residents from across the region.
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