‘No decision has been made’ about building a school in a T.M.R. park

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Some residents of City of Mount Royal are up in arms over rumours {that a} new college could possibly be constructed on the grounds of a well-liked municipal park.

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They’ve collected virtually 900 names on a petition and packed a city council assembly this week to demand solutions from Mayor Peter Malouf.

Rumours {that a} French elementary college can be inbuilt Ernest B. Jubien Park started circulating final month after the city posted a message on its web site saying it had reached an settlement in precept with the Centre de service scolaire Margeurite Bourgeoys for the situation of a much-needed French elementary college.

The deal was being finalized by the service centre’s attorneys and a joint announcement was forthcoming, Malouf mentioned final month.

Nevertheless, since residents have mobilized towards the proposal, Malouf seems to have modified his tune.

Throughout a number of testy exchanges with residents at Tuesday’s council assembly, he insisted that city councillors and the service centre have been nonetheless weighing their choices.

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“No resolution has been made,” Malouf reiterated Friday in an interview with the Montreal Gazette. “You have got all these leaks after which individuals kick up a storm.”

Francophone mother and father have been ready for years for a brand new college to ease overcrowding at their three elementary faculties. The brand new college would home 24 courses.

Académie Saint-Clément was constructed for 350 college students, however had 600 final 12 months. Many college students are in cellular school rooms.

The director common of the varsity service centre known as the Gazette Friday to say the situation of the varsity has not been decided.

“We’re nonetheless analyzing the totally different (choices),” Dominic Bertrand mentioned, including that he’s working intently with the city to discover a answer as quickly as potential.

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In a letter addressed to Malouf and city councillors, resident Françoise Le Gris mentioned residents who signed the petition need the park preserved for the neighborhood.

The park is utilized by households who dwell in 4 high-rise house buildings beside the Metropolitan Expressway and seniors who dwell in a residence on Russell Ave.

“It’s unfair to remove from the inhabitants of this space a inexperienced house and a park which can be the one locations of greenery and rest for the residents,” the letter says.

Residents have questioned the knowledge of constructing a college that might be 100 metres from Freeway 40, near the longer term REM commuter practice line and beneath the flight path for Trudeau airport.

Le Gris mentioned the city ought to shelve the plan till an evaluation of choices is completed.

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However Malouf mentioned that’s precisely what the service centre and college committee has accomplished.

After he was elected mayor final November, Malouf put collectively a committee of consultants who got here up with a brief checklist of appropriate websites.

These choices can be examined by city councillors throughout non-public caucus conferences and the general public can be knowledgeable of the choice when the plan is finalized, he mentioned.

“There needs to be a protected place to debate issues in non-public, or will there be a public discussion board on every thing?” he requested.

Two years in the past, Pierre Arcand, the native member of the Nationwide Meeting, brought about an uproar when he urged the varsity could possibly be constructed on a soccer area adjoining to Dunrae Gardens, one in every of two English elementary faculties in the neighborhood.

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The Quebec authorities has put apart $25 million for a brand new French major college in T.M.R.

To hurry up the method of constructing faculties, Quebec has given college service centres the ability to demand that municipalities cede public property for the “functions of building or growth of a college.”

Training Minister Jean-François Roberge justified the transfer, saying it was taking too lengthy for faculties to be constructed.

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