I am against the extension of Kildare Road to Jean Talon Street for many reasons. First, there is the financial component. Who will pay for this? Second, I do not believe we need to create a highway which would go directly in front of a school (Bialik) which has more than 1,000 students. It is an accident waiting to happen. We asked our Public Works Department to look into the potential costs in 2006 dollars of carrying out this project. In 1986, when the City of Montreal was supposed to pay for this extension as part of a land deal with us, the cost of four different scenarios (two tunnels under a group of three tracks and a group of 12 tracks; one overpass over all tracks; one tunnel under all tracks; and a tunnel under three tracks and an overpass over 12 tracks) ranged from $18 to $36 million. In 1992, the costs went from $23 to $47 million. Now, the numbers have ballooned to $64 to $119 million. Côte Saint-Luc does not have this kind of money. We are presently working with the City of Montreal and the Province of Quebec on the funding process for the long awaited extension of Cavendish Boulevard. I do not believe the extension of Kildare Road merits any further discussion at the present time.

Since my election on November 6, 2005 as the city councillor for Côte Saint-Luc District 2, I have spent considerable time consulting with residents. For the first time in the city’s history, a formal District 2 Advisory Council was established. A number of meetings have been held thus far, with a cross-section of individuals from the district on hand at each session. Other city councillors now intend to follow my lead and establish their own such bodies. District 2 encompasses Merrimac, Rembrandt, Kildare (between Rembrandt and Marc Chagall), Sir Walter Scott, Ilan Ramon, Marc Chagall, Mackle (between Cavendish and Brandeis), Cavendish Mall, Cavendish (Manoir Montefiore, Manoir Camelia, L’Excelsior) and Honoré-de-Balzac. As a longtime resident of District 2, I meet with residents regularly during my walkabouts. During the summer months I did an extensive examination of some of District 2’s needs. Part of this process included a tour with David Tordjman, the city’s director of public works and urban planning. This was a very valuable exercise as we examined different needs while identifying some potential short and longterm objectives.