Booming city deserves its own city hall
A new municipally owned city hall facility is exactly what Vaudreuil-Dorion residents deserve, though it has become political fodder heading into the civic election this fall.
Vaudreuil-Dorion currently leases office space for its city hall in a privately owned, two-storey strip mall-style structure on Dutrisac Street that also houses a ground-floor poolroom bar.
The real-estate adage that it’s better to buy than rent should also apply to a municipality.
The booming municipality has grown by leaps and bounds since the mergers of Dorion and Vaudreuil in 1994. Its population has reached 38,000 from just under 18,600 in 1995, thus making it the largest municipality in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region.
Its vast commercial sector, particularly adjacent to Highway 40, and its industrial sector, which includes the new Ericsson Canada high-tech plant, are indicators that Vaudreuil-Dorion’s non-residential tax base provides a significant financial contribution to offset the cost of infrastructure projects.
Earlier this month, the current city council — including five of eight members who have declared they will seek re-election with Mayor Guy Pilon — unanimously approved selection criteria for a public tender for professional architectural services, including engineering for plans and specifications and the supervision of construction work on a future town hall.
That sparked outrage from Pierre Séguin, who is aiming to oust Pilon from the mayor’s post. It’s shaping up to be a heated political contest between these two rivals, who both have a team of councillor candidates running in the city’s eight districts.
Even if the timing of the project announcement might be tied to the looming election, building a new town hall idea didn’t come out of left field. Last December, Vaudreuil-Dorion council adopted a $72-million operating budget for 2017. It also tabled a triennial capital program of almost $94 million, including $11.6 million to build new city hall building in 2019. A similar project was also listed as part of the previous year’s capital program.
While construction won’t start until at least 2018, councils are elected to four-year terms. That includes the final seven months of the current mandate.
Séguin says the public should have been consulted before a city hall project was launched. He says a key question remains unanswered: The city has yet to announce the site of the new city hall.
City officials, however, said negotiations for the purchase of the land are underway and the site should be unveiled in the coming weeks. The construction project is expected to begin in early 2018, with completion expected by the end of 2019.
Meanwhile, two nearby municipalities are building new city halls that are set to open this year, albeit a couple of months behind schedule.
St-Lazare, which has about 19,900 residents, is investing about $10 million to construct a 40,000-square-foot city hall building that will include meeting space for non-profit community organizations.
Senneville, a village of just under 1,000 residents, is building a new $1.9-million town hall for its administrative services. About five years ago, the town opened a new community centre where its monthly council meetings and social activities are held.
Both the St-Lazare and Senneville projects faced opposition, though not enough voters in either case signed public registers to block required loan bylaws to build their respective city halls. In the case of St-Lazare, a November 2015 register was 17 signatures short of the 500 required to force council to either rescind a $9.4-million loan bylaw or call a referendum.
Vaudreuil-Dorion council
— the current members or the new ones to be elected to office this fall — should pay heed and make sure a majority of their residents are on board for a potential $11-million project if a loan bylaw is to pass through a register process.