(NSN) Officials with the Town of Rosemère are inviting residents to attend the municipality’s first annual Harvest Festival on Saturday September 14 in front of the town library.

Family activities

A full lineup of activities is planned, starting off with a public market featuring a number of local agricultural producers. The festivities will also include various family-friendly activities and live performances, as well as a medley of food trucks as of 1 p.m.

“Harvest Festival is a noteworthy addition to our community calendar,” said Mayor Eric Westram. “Besides offering a fun-filled program, the event was created to collect fresh fruit and vegetables and non-perishable goods for Moisson Laurentides.

Entertainment

“So why not enjoy yourselves and give back to the community at the same time?” he added. “Take advantage of the entertainment, activities and food trucks on site and help us gather food for people in need.”

There will be a honey harvesting workshop held in the library starting at 10:30 a.m. The town’s bees have been buzzing away all summer long in their hives at Hamilton House – and now is the time to reap the rewards of their hard work.

Honey harvesting

According to the town, the honey will also be used to make a variety of products that will be sold at Rosemère’s traditional holiday market, with proceeds going to Les Petits Plaisirs, a community organization providing respite care.

Detailed program: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., public market Featuring an array of local producers 10:30 a.m., honey harvesting workshop (Library). Noon, cooking demo – seasonal cuisine. 1 p.m. to 10 p.m., food trucks, roving performers, archery, face painting, live music.

The day’s program

5:30 p.m., Aquaphonie street theatre clown show. 6:30 p.m., Léonie Chouinard (Rosemère performer, winner of the 2019 Blainville en chansons contest). 7 p.m., African Folk Groove. 8 p.m., dancing in the street (programmed music).

Please note that on the day of the event, Grande-Côte Rd. will be blocked off to motorists between Adélard and Hector Streets from noon until 10 p.m. Local traffic will be rerouted to Labelle Street.

(NSN) Rivière-des-Mille-Îles Liberal MP Linda Lapointe was at at the Valley Clan Inc. Farm in Compton southeastern Quebec on Aug. 16 for an important announcement of federal support to dairy farmers by the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Marie-Claude Bibeau.

Considering the concerns of milk producers in her region, Lapointe said she wanted to support any initiative that could come to their aid.

$1.75 billion in aid

Taking into account the commitments made under the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Lapointe pointed out that the federal government has committed to provide compensations in the amount of $1.75 billion over eight years to nearly 11,000 dairy producers in Canada.

Satisfied with measures

For the owner of a farm of 80 dairy cows, this represents $28,000 in the first year. “I am very proud and satisfied with the aid measures announced by my government,” she said. “I am confident that these will make a huge difference, not only for producers in my region, but also for those in the rest of Canada.

“In addition, since I was a member of the Standing Committee on International Trade, I am very sensitive to the issues surrounding free trade agreements,” added Lapointe.

The $1.75 billion is in addition the already allotted $250 million investment program that is available to more than 3,300 dairy farmers across the country. Both, she said, represent a total support of $ 2billion.

Committed to support

As well, Lapointe said that in the event of the ratification of the new free trade agreement with the United States and Mexico, the Canadian federal government has promised to fully and fairly support dairy producers.

“Today’s announcement demonstrates how much the government respects our producers and how strongly we believe in the supply management system,” Bibeau said for her part. She also reiterated the federal government’s commitment to other supply-managed sectors, like egg and poultry producers.

Martin C. Barry

Rosemère mayor Eric Westram announced during the Aug. 19 meeting of town council that the council decided to underscore the performance of certain municipal employees whose services proved to be exceptionally valuable over the past summer.

The three received student bursaries of $500 each. “These employees demonstrated exceptional behaviour and professionalism throughout the season and I would like to congratulate them for their excellent work while wishing them success in their studies,” said the mayor.

Summer workers thanked

At the same time, he said he wanted to thank all the town’s seasonal workers, who worked incessantly whether at the day camps, at the pool, as bicycle monitors or at any of the town’s recreational facilities.

During the regular business portion of the meeting, Mayor Westram read out a resolution calling upon the provincial government to exclude certain areas of Rosemère from the government’s overall plan to create a new flood risk zone in the town. A number of town residents had objected to the province’s new flood zone map.

Question over flood dikes

During the second question period, Philippe Sauvé of Bellerive St. questioned the mayor on item 11.1 from the council agenda, involving a study on the protection of urban heritage sites on the banks of Rivière des Mille Îles (a request to receive financial assistance from the province).

“Are we talking here about the solidification or reinforcement of the dikes? Or does this have anything to do with all that?” he asked. Mayor Westram said the resolution had nothing to do with the flood dikes. He said further developments regarding studies of the feasibility of the town’s current dikes along the Rivière des Mille Îles would be available in September.

Climate change subsidies

Town councillor Marie-Hélène Fortin explained that the resolution in question concerned an offer of subsidies by Quebec to combat climate change, for which Rosemère might be eligible.

Normand Painchaud of Elm St. asked for an update on the Val-Marie residential construction project, “because there is currently nothing going on with that,” he said. “Is it a project that has fallen into the water? Does the heritage building there fall under the ministerial or municipal protections?”

Val-Marie project update

Westram replied, “We have no news from the developer. In fact, the request for a building permit has never even been deposited. So effectively we are waiting to see what will be happening with that developer.” Painchaud interjected, “He is still alive?”

The mayor continued, “One portion, one of the buildings, would fall within the flood zone. That is the building which is closest to the water – the building which formerly was occupied by an overseer who made sure that the security on that property was respected.” Councillor Fortin added that the heritage house on the site is conserved as heritage site. “That’s a certainty,” she said.

Some water damage

Answering another resident in the audience who interjected with a comment, Westram continued, “At the house itself, and I have visited it personally, there has never been any water that has penetrated it. On the other hand, the other to which I referred in the flood zone which was the overseer’s and the one that was the nuns’, there water did get in at some point because the floors are all wavy.”

Regarding the Val-Marie project, the mayor said “I am even ready to call the architect who had the mandate to build, because I would also like to know what is going on. Because that project was intended for persons of a certain age.

No word from developer

“There were people there in villas who wanted to sell and go live there,” said Westram. “The rest were firsts to whom this project was proposed. There were three phases: the first was the people from the villas, the second people from Rosemère and the third and last was units left available to the general public.”

In the meantime, according to Mayor Westram, some people living in the villas have been leaving to go live in places such as Blainville “because they have no place in Rosemère to settle. That project was something that would have filled a need and it was a nice project.”

Martin C. Barry

It says something about how far the City of Deux-Montagnes has come in the last five years that in Maclean’s latest edition Deux-Montagnes outranks the prestigious City of Westmount in the national magazine’s evaluations of municipalities across the nation.

That accomplishment was near the top of the agenda when Mayor Denis Martin delivered his monthly report on new developments during the latest city council meeting on Aug. 8.

Chalk one up for DM

Deux-Montagnes was ranked 36^th out of more than 4,000 municipalities evaluated across Canada, and 1^st among those in Quebec. Meanwhile, the City of Westmount came in as No. 51 in the overall rankings.

According to a statement issued by Deux-Montagnes city hall, the grading took a number of criteria into account, including economic health, demographic data, taxation, accessibility to healthcare and public transit.

Affordable housing

The last criterion made Deux-Montagnes stand out, followed by its low crime rate and the affordability of its housing. (The average home in Deux-Montagnes is now evaluated at $286,000, placing the city’s residential real estate among the most affordable and attractive in the region of Montreal.) Deux-Montagnes ranked 13^th across Canada in this regard.

“This is thanks to the participation of everyone,” the mayor told the relatively sparse crowd attending the mid-summer council meeting.

A continuing effort

“This is more or less the goal we had set when we first went out door-to-door during our first electoral campaign. I would say we had set the bar high at that time, but now we find we’ve gotten somewhere with it. We don’t intend to sit around. We will continue doing things such as investing in our parks for families.

“Of course, there are still a lot of dossiers and a lot things remaining to be fixed in Deux-Montagnes, for example the dike and the floods and the REM. We will continue to be present and to defend the interests of Deux-Montagnes.”

Renovation materials

During the public question period, Ginette Clairoux of Croissant Brown criticized the City of Deux-Montagnes’ strict regulation of exterior renovation materials, which she said sometimes impose uneven standards for the selection of colours.

As the mayor explained, the colours of materials are expected to harmonize with those on nearby houses and buildings. Clairoux, who lives a short distance from the school grounds of Polyvalente Deux-Montagnes and has complained at past council meetings about night-time disturbances there, suggested the situation is still not in hand.

PDM belongs to CSSMI

Mayor Martin pointed out that the PDM grounds are in the jurisdiction of the Commission scolaire de la Seigneurie-des-Mille-Îles and that the City of Deux-Montagnes has no little or no authority to regulate what goes on there.

During the meeting, Mayor Martin also revealed that CDPQ Infra, which is building the REM train that will be passing through Deux-Montagnes, has agreed to schedule shuttle buses between Deux-Montagnes and Montreal to replace the commuter train service which will end while the REM system is under construction.

Shuttle buses for REM

While service won’t be available during peak commuter travel periods, there will be shuttle service from Deux-Montagnes’ Grand Moulin station to downtown Montreal at several other times during the day. The service is expected to begin in January next year when the old train service shuts.And as he told several residents who came to the meeting to find out, construction on a new permanent dike along the waterfront has started. The remains of a temporary dike that was put up last spring as flood waters rose are now being removed. “They’re cleaning the area and getting the materials ready for the new dike, and it should be completed for November,” he said.

(NSN) The Town of Rosemère, in collaboration with the Rosemère Business Association (AGAR), is proud to unveil a new and eye-catching style of planter that will help put local storefronts in their best light.

Great idea, says mayor

The idea of coming up with a striking decorative element to call attention to the town’s businesses arose during the annual Rosemère in Bloom competition.

“These illuminated planters are great for showcasing our businesses in an attractive and consistent way,” said Rosemère Mayor Eric Westram.

Keeping traditions

“But they also represent the beginning of a tradition among our merchants to reinforce our reputation as a proud, green and prosperous community, while still maintaining our small-town charm.”

The town has made funds available for businesses that wish to purchase these special planters and fill them with flowers. The undertaking has been made possible through the support of AGAR and its efforts to promote the Rosemère business community.

Local businesses pleased

“We are delighted by the wonderful partnership that has formed between AGAR, Fleuriste Foliole and the town,” said AGAR Vice-President Jessy Turcot. “This initiative will enable merchants and office buildings alike to join in this turnkey project to enhance the look of their exterior.”

So far, close to 10 merchants have embraced this new concept and obtained planters to put outside their establishments. It is hoped that more and more members of the business community follow suit in the years to come to light up the town’s main streets for everyone to enjoy.

Martin C. Barry

Despite a setback for Rosemère’s town manager whose legal appeal to dismiss an investigation by the Quebec Order of Engineers was recently rejected, Rosemère mayor Eric Westram says he continues to have full confidence in Guy Benedetti.

The Order of Engineers has accused Benedetti of tolerating and participating in collusion when he was director-general of the City of Longueuil from 2005 to 2012.

Had worked for Longueuil

According to news reports last year and more recently, a former director of engineering with Longueuil testified to the OIQ that Benedetti had asked him make sure the municipal services sub-contractor CIMA+ received a certain contract in 2009.

The OIQ maintains that a system of collusion existed in Longueuil from 2002 to 2009 with the approval of senior bureaucrats and two politically-influential individuals.

Appeal to Superior Court

When charges against Benedetti were tabled in early 2019, long after he had started working for Rosemère, he appealed to the Superior Court of Quebec to order the charges dropped.

He did this after asking the OIQ’s disciplinary tribunal three times to drop the accusations since they were taking so long to process, and the details on which the charges were based were too vague to take seriously, claimed Benedetti.

Mayor Westram reacts

Earlier this week, Rosemère’s mayor told the North Shore News he has long been aware of the charges hanging over the town’s current director-general, but that he supports Benedetti.

“I’m very well aware of it,” said Westram, who was elected in 2017, while maintaining that the previous mayor, Madeleine Leduc, whom he had defeated, would also be aware since, according to Westram, she hired Benedetti.

Says Leduc hired him

“She’s the one who hired him. And she knew about the complaint that the Ordre des Ingénieurs had lodged. She knew about this in 2016, and I knew about it a few weeks after I was elected.“My position is very clear,” he added. “It’s not because somebody is accused that they should be considered guilty. So I told Mr. Benedetti then and I told him again that he had my trust and that otherwise he is my general manager.”

(NSN) Quebec Finance Minister Eric Girard issued a statement earlier this week saying that will soon be tabling new legislation to deal with theft of personal information through widescape computer hacking.

The move comes following the theft of personal data from Quebec’s Caisses Desjardins.

Initially, according to Girard, the proposed legislation would improve the protection of personal and financial information belonging to citizens.

Safeguards to increase

He noted that as things stand now, personal financial assets are guaranteed in instances where fraud is committed. He suggested that credit tracking agencies such as Equifax are playing an important role in providing stronger security. Girard said Desjardins reacted quickly to the situation it was faced with.

“It is our intention to put into place measures aimed at increasing the protection of the financial information of all Quebecers,” Girard said. “The incident at Desjardins is regrettable and I understand that Quebecers are worried. We are aware that they are waiting for improvements from the government.”

Martin C. Barry

Several vehicles and officers from the Régie de Police du Lac des Deux-Montagnes converged at the corner of 21^st Ave. and Montclair St. in Deux-Montagnes during the early evening of Thursday Aug. 8 in response to a report of a “road rage” incident involving two cars.

“In general it was a just a case of road rage that had taken place,” said RPLDM community relations officer Christopher Harding. According to Harding, one of the vehicles involved cut off the other, following which there was an impact between the two.

Road rage incident

“The person who got cut off got out of their vehicle to get the license plate number of the other vehicle,” he continued. Because one of the individuals involved was a young adult, that person’s father turned up at the scene, said Harding.

“When she went out to get the license plate number of the other vehicle, the driver of the other vehicle pushed her. The father then showed up on the scene, and as you may well imagine that didn’t go over well.”

Police reacted

According to Harding, the heated nature of the confrontation prompted several police cars to respond to the scene. “I think the officers were also responding in order to locate the suspects,” he said. “They rounded them up. This was all about road rage.”

In the end, a male occupant from one of the vehicles was detained by police and taken into custody in a police car. While the sight of multiple police vehicles responding to an incident may seem unduly alarming, Harding said staff at the RPLDM were following procedure.

A different approach

“Sometimes a certain incident may bring a lot of vehicles but not that much personnel,” Harding said. “Because in the smaller towns, in order to be able to cover a larger territory all of our vehicles are solo. So the moment you need, say, two officers to intervene, automatically you’re going to get two cars. And then, of course, the supervisor’s van will arrive as well.”

For that reason, he said sometimes seemingly innocuous incidents like shouting matches between neighbours or relatives can potentially result in three or four police cars converging on the scene.