Results of Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue byelection eagerly awaited

Things are really rocking in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue! With the utility lines ripped down along Ste-Anne St., leaving a hole in the urban canopy and the stripped poles coming down, it finally looks like the vision of my second council back in 1998-99. It’s taken nearly 20 years to renovate the main street, and it has cost $14 million. Back in 1997, my council was gobsmacked by a $3-million estimate.

Now comes the hard part: How to revive the local economy to match the new look? Ste-Annede-Bellevue needs a serious lift.

There is already some good news for local merchants, if you can call it that. Municipal Court Judge Marie Brouillet almost ruled in favour of a local building owner who had received $8,000 worth of tickets for not removing graffiti from the walls of his building. I say “almost” ruled in his favour because instead of the $8,000, which the town was demanding he pay, Judge Brouillet ruled that the building owner should pay for only one ticket, $145, and that the stacks of other tickets were effectively deemed an abuse of process and were, therefore, cancelled.

The director general of the town was then quoted as saying that he was waiting for the written judgment before commenting. But what is there to wait for? Is he contemplating recommending an appeal? Has anyone asked him why he let it get this far? Why didn’t he realize that this was a potential abuse of process? The director general is responsible for the conduct of the town’s employees. And the mayor is there to intervene when the top bureaucrat loses sight of reasonable application of municipal law. So why did this have to take up court time and expense? How could it have been allowed to happen?

So, while I’m on about Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, with its new look main street, this month the town is in election mode and it’s a rather important one for the mayor and the two councillors who vote with her on touchy issues. There is a byelection in District 3 following the death of councillor Andrée Deschamps. Two candidates are competing for the post, François Juneau and Lise-Anne Briand, who narrowly failed to get elected in this same seat against Deschamps in the last general election.

It is very hotly disputed byelection, in a way only possible in a small village. I can assure you that the residents of District 3, the oldest area in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, huddled around the French Catholic church dedicated to Ste-Anne, patron saint of the sailors, will be buzzing. Every door will be visited at least twice and the candidates will be tempted to make a return call if there’s a hope or a doubt. Phones will be heated with calls. Social media will be infectious with rumour. Every ounce of family connection will be in play, every moment in primary school, every secondary school romance, every neighbourhood edge will be sharpened for the vote Sunday, Feb. 21. The cars will be lined up to drive the 500 metres to the polling station, the lists will be pinned to the kitchen wall, every ruse will be rehearsed and played. Oxygen kits will be checked for the handicapped.

If Juneau wins, a precocious child of this mythic area of old Sainte-Anne, the council will benefit by the presence of a young resident in his 20s. I never served on council with anyone in their 20s. It would be very interesting to have the benefit of that age group’s vision and hopes.

If Briand wins, the council will benefit from the presence of another woman, bringing council back to almost gender balance, which councils I was on managed to achieve twice. And gender balance makes for a huge change in the atmosphere and functioning.

Normally a byelection wouldn’t be terribly significant, but in the present circumstances there is a clear split among the present councillors, which expresses itself around a handful of issues. In the circumstances, the mayor, Paola Hawa, even if she opts to vote, can only manage a negative result on contentious issues. A 3-3 tie vote is considered negative because it blocks the motion from passing. Her friendly councillors are uncomfortable with development and are eager to protect as much green space as possible before compulsory zoning changes open the door to industrial, commercial and residential development in Ste-Anne’s north sector.

The newly elected councillor could effectively give Hawa a slim majority on her council.

The candidates in Sunday’s byelection have been discrete about their future voting intentions, but they won’t be able to dodge the issue, as the mayor will be hoping to adopt items that the three opposing councillors have already rejected.

Rarely is the result of a byelection awaited with such interest. Which way will the new councillor go?

And may I just add, for the record, that if we had stayed merged with Montreal, none of this would have happened, and all the decisions concerning Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue would have been made in Île-Bizard. Maybe it was worth all that effort. Not that I have anything against Île-Bizard: it’s a lovely island.