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Villeray/St-Michel/Park Extension borough officials say they are doing their best to make sure a dispute between two community groups doesn’t lead to the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding from Quebec next year for sports and recreation services provided free of charge to Park Extension’s youths.
Services for youths
Nelson Osse, executive-director of the Corporation des Loisirs du Parc, brought the issue to the attention of the borough council during its monthly meeting last week. The organization provides sports and recreation services free of charge to young people in Park Extension, using grant money provided by Québec en Forme.
The provincial agency, mandated to encourage physical fitness among Quebec’s children and adolescents, allots about $300,000 annually to a number of sports and recreation groups in Park Extension, although the decisions are made partly in conjujnction with a so-called Table de Concertation, which is a local community discussion forum and coordination group.
A ‘dysfunctional’ Table
But for the past few years, according to city councillor Mary Deros, the Table de Concertation hasn’t been functioning well. “It’s been about two years that we’ve had a dysfunctional working Table,” she said in an interview with NPEN. “It sort of degenerated and it’s just not working. And right now there are two groups that are trying to come up separately in competition with each other to try to work out their differences and reorganize.
“And at this point the organizations that are receiving the funds have been told in a letter from Québec en Forme that, unless things change, by September there’s a possibility they will no longer be funded. It’s not a small amount $300,000. This is a very serious matter because our children in Park Ex do need additional sports activities that are free. It’s healthy for them. It’s also good sportsmanship. They learn discipline.”
‘Things look positive’: Deros
Deros said she had been aware for a while of the dispute between the two competing groups and that some kind of action by Québec en Forme might eventually ensue. In the meantime, she says she has spoken with department heads in the borough administration and they have been speaking with the agency to try and find a solution. “They assure me that things look positive, that things will be worked out and we will retain this important investment for our young people,” Deros said.
During the same meeting, another issue affecting Park Extension came up. Feral cats, undomesticated felines which wander freely, are causing problems for some people. According to Park Ex resident Mary McCutcheon, three generations of feral cats were born under the exterior deck on the property of one of her neighbours in the past year. When she tried to capture some in order to take them to the SPCA, however, she found it was much more difficult than she imagined.
Park Ex’s feral cats
On further investigation, she discovered the SPCA wasn’t mandated to capture the animals. The borough actually has a contract for that task with the Berger Blanc animal control service which is located in Rivière des Prairies. In the meantime, a neighbour has possibly been making the matter worse by feeding the cats. “Can something be done to educate this lady,” said McCutcheon, noting that Berger Blanc has published leaflets showing graphically how quickly cats propagate.
Cats eat mice, notes Deros
“The population of feral cats in Montreal isn’t just in Park Extension but everywhere, especially taking into account all the moving that took place recently and people who left cats behind,” said Borough Mayor Anie Samson. “It’s a big problem that we have, and we have yet to find a solution.”
Councillor Mary Deros isn’t completely convinced that stray cats aren’t without some practical use. She suspects that the spread of mice and rats in Park Extension is being kept in check because of the large number of cats. “I prefer having cats in the alleyways and in the streets to maintain control of infestation by rats and mice which are everywhere,” she said.