Opening comments by Mayor Peter J. Malouf - Regular Meeting of Tuesday, September 20, 2022

" Good evening everyone and welcome to this September 2022 council meeting. Despite the inclement weather I am happy to see so many residents interested in municipal affairs and present here tonight.

MULTICULTURAL FAIR 

Next Saturday is the annual Multicultural fair to be held in Connaught Park. This year we are celebrating the Ukraine  and will be highlighting the many aspects of Ukrainian culture. I invite you all to join us in Connaught park as of 11am on Saturday September 24.

NEW FRANCOPHONE SCHOOL

Regarding the new francophone school, a subject of importance for Townies and especially for young families, we continue to work on the project. However, despite our active efforts and discussions with the CSSMB, the project is encountering difficulties beyond our control.

As Mayor of TMR, I will continue to exercise my leadership to ensure the most appropriate solution for our children and will require the CCSMB to provide further details and clarification regarding the developments mentioned. 

I have just passed a resolution in caucus in this regard, which will be read and adopted by the Council tonight.

To put things in perspective, the CSSMB, which felt comfortable in June with a short list of recommended sites, warned us that they would come back to us shortly, after validation of certain volumetric aspects as well as the legal aspects of the interpretation of the law, considering that the school could be on TMR territory for Montreal children.

My instinct and my business experience told me to be cautious before making any public announcement since things can change quickly.

It turns out that my apprehension (or caution) was correct, as you just heard tonight.

I wish to say, however, that it is unfortunate that due to incomplete information being leaked, this has led to rumors, speculation, subjective accusations, and misinterpretations, which have ultimately resulted in misinformation and falsehoods being disseminated to our community, causing it unnecessary concern and division.

I will continue to follow the process and stick to the facts, as it is the responsibility of elected officials to their community. I will not dwell on unfounded speculation.  

How easy it is to constantly be a critic and an activist when you don’t have to lead or make decisions that are in the best interest of the silent majority and the whole community and especially the children.

QUARTIER SPORTIF

The process of considering options for the Quartier Sportif continues. We have had several meetings internally and plan to discuss these options in caucus within the next 2 to 3 weeks. Depending on the progress of these discussions, we will be preparing a public presentation evening to share the vision and open up the discussion with citizens.

NEW PROPERTY ASSESSMENT ROLL 

As you have all seen, the new property assessment roll was deposited by the Agglomeration of Montreal's last week. Our town is no different than any other, and the real estate market has been very active over the past few years and this has had an impact on property values. The average house in VMR is now worth $1.94M, the increase is 37.7% for the residential sector. 

The value on the assessment roll is indeed used to determine the cost of municipal taxes, but I would like to reassure our taxpayers that in the preparation of the 2023 budget, members of the municipal council and the administration of the Town have at our disposal certain tools such as the reduction of the mill rate and some financial reserves that could help ease a radical increase in the tax bill of Townies. 

We will use these tools and work hard on the next budget to present a tax rate that lessens as much as possible this  increase in property values, while maintaining the quality of services residents have become accustomed to.

IMPROVING COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE BCITI+ APP

In the next few days, Townies  will be able to download the free bciti+ mobile application to be better connected to the Town and have easier access to municipal news, municipal building schedules and the most sought-after information about the Town.
Notifications can also be sent on the application, by text message or by email.

A subscription campaign for residents will be launched as soon as the app is operational.  

The bciti+ application for the Town of Mount Royal is available free of charge on the App Store and on Google play. 

In closing, I would like to thank you for attending this evening either in person or by replay; summer is unfortunately coming to an end and I hope you have enjoyed our beautiful green spaces. So with the arrival of colder weather, of days spent indoors, I urge you to continue to be cautious and protect yourselves from the effects of covid. 

Enjoy the meeting."

Peter J. Malouf