(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.

Martin C. Barry

A perfect ten. If the people of Deux-Montagnes were scoring the Canada Day they had this past July 1, that would almost certainly be the number.

For not only was the weather sunny, but there wasn’t even a hint of the mid-afternoon thunderstorm activity that has plagued many a Canada Day celebration in the North Shore region in the past.

Great day for Canada

“A super day,” Deux-Montagnes city councillor Michel Mendes said in an interview with the North Shore News. “Everybody’s in a pretty good mood. Nothing can go wrong today.”

This year the Canada Day festivities organizing committee decided to pay homage to the city’s directors of police (Patrick Denis), fire (Norbert Vendette) and public works (Jean Fayomi) for the key role they played this past spring in saving Deux-Montagnes from a recurrence of the flooding that swept through the area two years ago.

The weather cooperated

It was Deux-Montagnes 48^th annual Canada Day celebration. (Just two years to go before a really big 50^th anniversary bash for the country’s birthday on July 1 2021.) “The weather’s helped out and is looking really good,” said longtime event MC Tom Whitton.

Carly Leblanc, a lifelong Deux-Montagnes resident and recent Lake of Two Mountains High School graduate, performed the country’s national anthem on the steps of city hall, as well as later on stage in Central Park.

Thanks to Parade Marshalls

“Today we are very happy to be able to honour our parade marshals, people from Deux-Montagnes who worked so very hard this past spring,” said Mayor Denis Martin, addressing the crowd in Central Park from the stage at the beginning of the festivities.

“The whole team did a fantastic job on the floods. I think this year we were prepared. And we had a good team to get the job done during 30 days and nights. I can’t say just how grateful we all are.” The mayor noted that the city’s director-general, Benoit Ferland, also played a key role, although Ferland could not be present on Canada Day as he was travelling outside the country.

Martin C. Barry

Lingering concerns about future flooding in Rosemère as well as questions about the town’s new billing system for the water tax were two major issues which emerged during the latest town council meeting on July 8.

Town’s 2020 flood plans

During the open plenary session which takes place prior to the regular council meeting, a resident of Thorncliffe St. asked Mayor Eric Westram what measures the town is planning in case there is flooding next year similar to what was experienced this past spring.

“We have a study going on at the moment,” said Westram. “We’re studying the three dams that we have on our territory to see if they could resist another flooding situation. We’re also looking at the general territory to see if there’s a need to put extra dikes to prevent anything from happening.”

Sandbags no longer do

According to Westram, the idea of using sandbags each year now for the past few years is starting to wear a little thin, considering the flooding situation appears to be getting more serious with the increasing prevalence of environmental warming.

“What we’d basically like to do is stabilize the situation as much as we can,” he said. “Now the problem is that the government has put a stop on all construction and renovations in the flooded areas. So even if I wanted to do something like that tomorrow morning, I wouldn’t be allowed to put it.”

New flood zones in effect

As Westram said, the provincial government has issued a new flood-zone map with greatly extended coverage – and which a number of communities and municipalities on the North Shore, in Laval and in the Montreal region are contesting for what they claim is inaccuracy.

“The cities are contesting the flood zones because the map that came up, to us it doesn’t make any sense. If you look at that map, there are places that were never flooded and that will never be flooded. So there’s a sort of negotiation going on at the moment between the government and the different cities. What we want the map to reflect is the actual reality of the situation.”

Construction freeze in place

Westram said he hoped the matter would be resolved before next spring, “because the problem occurs in springtime.” However, for the time being a general freeze on construction or renovations in the new flood zones is in effect, he added.

The mayor said that two flood-zone maps are currently circulating: one produced by the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal, and another issued by the provincial government. He called the former “a good reflection of the situation,” while saying in the case of the other the province “decided to put flood zones almost everywhere – which makes no sense.”

They want map revised

He said Rosemère and other municipalities are asking Quebec to recognize the CMM map, although some corrections might also be made to it. Westram also suggested that what the town also wants is for Quebec to create rules allowing property owners to build flood defences of their own.

As was the situation last month, a number of Rosemèrites came forward at this month’s council meeting to express a degree of befuddlement with the water tax bills they received beginning this spring. Rosemère’s water billing system has been revamped to reflect higher water consumption in the form of a higher tax for those users.

Water bill questions again

However, some residents have complained that they don’t understand why they’ve being billed more when they are not aware of having used more water over the past year. A woman at the July council meeting in this situation was told to cheque for water seepage in her household, including run-on toilets.

“You’d be surprised,” said Westram, noting that he had one faucet in his house that was leaking a drop of water every four to five seconds. He said he left a bucket beneath it, and upon returning in the evening the bucket was overflowing. “It’s amazing how a slight run in a toilet or a leaky faucet can cause water consumption to rise.”

(NSN) As part of an official signing of the guestbook in the library’s atrium last week, the Town of Rosemère wanted to highlight the outstanding sports achievements of eight young athletes from Rosemère, including seven who participated in the 54^th Finals of the winter Jeux du Québec and another who made history in the field of women’s golf.

Outstanding athletes

“I am very impressed with the dedication and discipline shown by these young people on a daily basis,” said Mayor Eric Westram. “Rosemère is very proud to have among its residents athletes who stand out on the national and international scene.”

The signing ceremony took place on June 19 with the young athletes and their families. Mahée Bellemare (gymnastics), Émile Cloutier (diving), Olivier Desrosiers (fencing), Samuel Lachance (boys’ hockey), Frédérick Maltais (boys’ hockey), Samuel Philippe (speed skating) and Jeanne Renaud (girls’ hockey) were proud to represent the Town of Rosemère in Quebec City from March 1-9, 2019.

An elite golfer

Émile Cloutier won a silver and a bronze medal in diving 1 and 3 metres. Olivier Desrosiers won two gold medals in fencing (individual and team). Jeanne Renaud won a gold medal in girls’ hockey. As for Brigitte Thibault, she was recruited by Golf Canada to join a group of 17 elite athletes who are part of one of the national amateur and junior Team Canada teams in 2019.

Thibault is the first Canadian golfer to take part in the first Augusta National Women’s Amateur Tournament, bringing together the best amateur female golfers in the world. The Fresno State University student had the chance to play on Augusta National’s fairways on the same course used during the Masters Tournament. She joins the Amateur Team as a rookie, after having competed in three finals and scoring among the top 10.

The schedule for the 48^th edition of Canada Day celebrated in Deux-Montagnes, was announced at a press conference held yesterday at City Hall.  The Mayor of Deux-Montagnes, Mr. Denis Martin, and the President of the Canada Day Committee for MRC Deux-Montagnes, Mr. Tom Whitton have invited the entire MRC population to gather in large numbers on Monday, July 1st at Central Park in Deux-Montagnes.

“It is an honour for the City of Deux-Montagnes to be a partner for Canada Day, an event which always brings together citizens of the region.  For all who accept the invitation, it is the ideal moment to celebrate our pride in being Canadian though a variety of activities in our image,” declared Mr. Denis Martin, Mayor of Deux-Montagnes.

For his part, Mr. Tom Whitton mentioned, “Deux-Montagnes is, by far, the best place to celebrate Canada Day on the North Shore or in the Greater Montreal Region.  I must thank our partners, the City of Deux-Montagnes, the Government of Canada, Desjardins – Caisse de Saint-Eustache/Deux-Montagnes, Selection Deux-Montagnes and Groupe JCL (L’Éveil/Nord-Info) for their substantial contribution to our memorable cultural event.”

As in years past, a parade will kick off the celebrations.  The parade will start at the Royal Canadian Legion at 11 h 45, leading to City Hall, where our national anthem, “O Canada” will be sung.  The parade will then continue on to Central Park.  In naming a Parade Marshall for 2019, the Committee is honoured to recognize not a single person, but all of the employees of the three front-line departments which protected Deux-Montagnes from the flood water all through this past spring:

• Public Works and Technical Services Department
• Deux-Montagnes/Sainte-Marthe-Sur-Le-Lac Intermunicipal Fire Department
• Lac-des-Deux-Montagnes Police Force

The Festivities – New Activities

Starting at 12:30pm, many family activities will be offered: face-painting, train rides, horseshoes tournament, etc.  New for 2019 – pony rides and a giant bubble workshop.

Live music featuring artists from the region will be presented from 3pm right up to midnight.  The headlining band is Persuasion, a tribute to Santana, not forgetting, of course, the spectacular fireworks display, presented by the City of Deux-Montagnes, which will fill the sky at 10:15pm.

A Place for Teens and Young Adults

Thanks to support from Canadian Heritage, a new sub-committee of teens and young adults was form to organize different activities targeting their age group : Virtual Reality Gaming Station, an Escape game, a « Chill Zone », as well as giant games, including Jenga, Foosball and Hungry Hippos.

The complete schedule is attached to this press release and can also be consulted on the Committee’s web site at www.celebrationcanada-mrcdm.ca  

Generous Partners

“Again this year, the Caisse Desjardins of Saint-Eustache/Deux-Montagnes is happy to be a partner in Canada Day.  As a cooperative, the Caisse has as its mission to contribute to the social and economic well-being of our society, and being a part of festivities in our community is another concrete example of our contribution,” underlined Mr. Neil Hawthorn, Director General of Caisse Desjardins.

Ms. Ginette Collin, Director General of Selection Deux-Montagnes, also expressed her pleasure to contribute to Canada Day, “At Selection Deux-Montagnes, all is in place to offer a stimulating retirement in a life framework well anchored in the local community.  Let us share special moments during this day.  Happy Canada Day to all! »

Finally, we must also highlight the support from our major sponsors for the event: Benoit Charette, Provincial MNA for Deux-Montagnes, Lanthier & Beatty Construction and RTS Installations.

If you would like to volunteer for the day, please contact Christine Neumayer at 514 827-1361.