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Hey Pointe-Claire,

Today I want to talk to you about the Fairview Forest. This past week the Québec Government and the City of Montreal announced that 18 square kilometers in the western half of Île-Bizard, including both private and public land, would become a protected green area under Québec’s Loi sur la conservation du patrimoine naturel, the Nature Conservation Act.
We often hear claims from our Mayor and Council about how Pointe-Claire has no choice but to do its part to meet densification targets from the Montreal Agglomeration Council. But with this announcement the Montreal Mayor and the Environment Minister were talking about a different target: to increase the protected greenspace in the Montreal Area from 6 to 10%.

So if Pointe-Claire can do much more than its fair share when it comes to building condos, why can’t we start doing our fair share when it comes to protecting trees and greenspace?

As Mayor I will follow in the footsteps of our West Island neighbours who protected Cap-St-Jacques, Île-Bizard and Angell Woods by rezoning the Fairview Forest to remain as a greenspace and seeking support and funding from the provincial government to create a natural park with the same protected status given to the land on Île-Bizard.

Our current administration wants to make Pointe-Claire the Downtown of the West Island. I disagree with that goal. But couldn’t they at least recognize that every downtown should have its Central Park?

Development can only be appropriate if it is acceptable to the community and includes the right mix of commercial spaces, services and public greenspace. Those needs aren’t being taken into consideration by our current Mayor, who is taking us down the same condos-only path as Laval and Griffintown instead of taking his lead from Beaconsfield, Ste-Anne’s and Île-Bizard.

It wasn’t always this way. Pointe-Claire’s founders envisioned a Garden City where trees and greenspace on private and public land would not just be a part of our urban planning, but a part of our core identity as a community. Exactly 50 years ago, in the Summer of 1971, John Rennie High School students launched a campaign to turn Terra Cotta, which used to be a brick quarry, into a natural park. The Mayor at the time opposed them but they pressed on, and Terra Cotta park was opened in 1983. Now, 50 years later, no one doubts their vision.

I believe that 50 years from now, future generations will feel the same way about the Fairview Forest. But in 2021, the pace of development will not allow 12 years to change the City’s mind. Cadillac Fairview has already announced its project, and the election this November will be your last chance to choose between a Mayor who will preserve the forest, and a Mayor who will allow it to be clearcut for highrise condo developments. Between a Garden City, and the Downtown of the West Island.
With your help, I will work with other levels of government, to make Pointe-Claire the enlightened city of the future that it deserves to be.
Together we can and will do better.