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While the Borough of Villeray/St-Michel/ Park Extension is preparing to holds its first borough council meeting starting in February in a new permanent venue at 405 Ogilvy Avenue in Park Extension, a rift over the decision to relocate the meetings from St-Michel, where they've been taking place for the last eight years, appears to have opened between Borough Mayor Anie Samson and local city councillor Mary Deros.
Rotating meetings
Responding to a Villeray resident's question about the move to the new borough headquarters during council's monthly sparsely-attended meeting on Dec. 2, Samson said simply, "It is the will of my colleagues." In an interview afterwards, Samson said that in 2005 she and Deros had deposited a resolution that the borough council should hold meetings on a rotating basis in the borough's three districts, so that residents could participate more fully and equally.
Samson claims, however, that after she revised the resolution, the other councillors rejected it and the idea of itinerant meetings has been put aside since. Regarding 405 Ogilvy, she said, "It's the far end of the borough. For those who live on Industriel and Pie IX (in St-Michel) it takes them a lot longer to get there because they have no access to the Metro or the bus and they can't come. I was elected by the population as a whole and I would like everyone to have an even chance to be able to come and see what happens in the borough council."
'Democratic principles' – Samson
Samson said she would rather not continue holding the borough council meetings at the former Ville St-Michel city hall, although she added, "I would have wanted, and it was something that was possible, to hold a council meeting in St-Michel, one in Villeray and one in Park Extension, and do it on a rotating basis in order to give access to everyone, so that residents wouldn't be saying they couldn't attend because it's too far. For me there are important democratic principles involved.
"This other way we're going to be over there (405 Ogilvy) and we're going to have to take new measures to make people aware who live at the other end of the borough and once again the people of Villeray will be caught in between," she added. Samson maintains, "We have to go and see the residents. The residents aren't going to come to see us and you can see that by the number of people who come to meetings. From the beginning, as I have said today, we have a borough that is different. We have a borough that is very large.
Samson opposed, says Deros
"We have been telling ourselves since 2001 that the residents were going to come out to see us … The commitment that we made in 2001-2002 at the beginning of the borough was that we would give ourselves a set meeting place and try to create a habit among residents that once a month they would travel to be able to come see us. What I have found since 2005 is that they are not travelling at all, and so it was incumbent on us to travel in order to see them."
In an interview with NPEN, Deros said, "For the last seven years, I have asked to have itinerant council meetings, but she (Samson) never thought it was necessary. If not that, at least have information meetings so that people have a way of coming and expressing themselves formally and we would at least have a formal registration of what citizens want and need, and she struck this down every time. She just didn't feel it was required. If people wanted to see us they could move.
'Hardly anything for Park Ex' – Deros
"… It's almost like we had two different types of citizens — everything for the east end, but hardly anything for Park Ex. And you know what? I'm proud that we were able to move all our services under one roof, under ideal working conditions, so that we can be more efficient, as opposed to working from five different buildings and having to transfer from one building to another and wasting time. Now we're all together, things can be held faster. If a citizen goes to see a city councillor and they need to see somebody in permits and inspections at Access Montreal, at least we're all under one roof."