Residents of Glenmount ask that their enclave become part of Mount Royal
Glenmount residents are hoping the Town of Mount Royal will annex their small neighbourhood near Jean Talon Street West and Canora Road.
At a meeting Monday night attended by one-quarter of the neighbourhood’s 675 households, all 162 people present voted in favour of asking T.M.R. to absorb the enclave, where residents have been in a running battle with the Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Damede-Grâce borough over subsidies for municipal services.
“It’s really the will of the residents here,” said Guillaume Tardif, a member of the Glenmount Community Association. The district of 1,800 lies roughly between Jean-Talon, Laird Boulevard, Glencoe Avenue and a line halfway between Canora Road and Aberdare Road.
T.M.R. Mayor Philippe Roy said the town welcomes the prospect of annexing Glenmount. “Historically, the Town of Mount-Royal has always considered residents of the Glenmount neighbourhood as residents of our community. In that sense, if talks were to take place in order for that neighbourhood to be annexed to the Town of Mount-Royal, we would be both in favour and very pleased,” he said by email.
For her part, C.D.N.—N.D.G Mayor Sue Montgomery said in a email: “We believe that we have met the primary demand of the Glenmount residents, which was to assure front-line access to T.M.R. services. C.D.N.-N.D.G. is the most vibrant, diverse and welcoming borough in Montreal and as mayor, I feel Glenmount is an important part of it.”
While the neighbourhood is technically part of Côte-des-Neiges, residents have long sent their children to school in T.M.R. and used its libraries and sports facilities. It is cut off from the rest of Côte-des-Neiges by Jean-Talon and train tracks, and public transit connections to the rest of the borough are poor.
In December, T.M.R. warned Glenmount residents that because C.D.N.—N.D.G. had not renewed a funding agreement with the town, they could no longer continue to enjoy full access to services in T.M.R. like swimming lessons and library membership. Instead, they were treated like out-of-town residents, who pay higher fees and have to wait until registration for T.M.R. residents had finished to sign up.
In February, the C.D.N.-N.D.G. borough announced a $40,000 deal that once again allows residents to sign up for sports and leisure activities in T.M.R. at the same time as T.M.R. residents. However, Glenmount residents must now pay out-of-town fees.
In 2017, the borough paid $155,000 so Glenmount residents could access leisure and recreation services in T.M.R. without paying additional fees.
Montgomery said in December that that money could be better spent on other services in multicultural Côte-des-Neiges, like hiring an additional building inspector.
Tardif said the borough’s decision to cut the funding for services in T.M.R. is only part of the reason residents want to leave. The neighbourhood is closer and more similar to T.M.R. and the fact it’s part of Montreal is just “an accident of history,” he said.
Under Quebec’s Act Respecting Municipal Territorial Organization, a municipal council may pass a bylaw to annex contiguous territory in another municipality. Annexation can solve problems between municipalities over municipal services or socio-economic belonging, according to provincial guidelines.
The Municipal Affairs department analyzes all requests for annexation, and the minister may approve a request if she judges it appropriate. Tardif said the residents plan to prepare a brief to T.M.R. putting forward reasons why it should annex the neighbourhood. “We believe we have a lot of contribute to T.M.R.,” notably in terms of tax revenue, he said.