Geneviève Lussier of Save Fairview Forest group said there are many “red flags” with council’s resolution to open private talks with CF.
Pointe-Claire council voted Monday at a raucous special meeting to forge ahead with discussions between the city and developer Cadillac Fairview regarding its development plans for the Fairview shopping centre parking lot and Fairview Forest.
The resolution, as put forth by council, is “for the purpose of ensuring public participation in determining the future of zones MU1 and MU2.”
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The six members who voted in favour of “kick-starting” talks with Cadillac Fairview were Brent Cowan, Eric Stork, Tara Stainforth, Cynthia Homan, Kelly Thorstad-Cullen and Paul Bissonnette.
Bruno Tremblay, whose district includes the Fairview Forest, was the lone dissenting councillor. Mayor Tim Thomas also voted against the resolution, which had been put forth at another special meeting on Jan. 19. The resolution was passed then, but Thomas used his mayor’s veto to defer the matter until the next regular council meeting in February. But council convened Monday’s meeting to reintroduce the resolution, arguing the mayor’s action did not meet the criteria for using a veto. As the Montreal Gazette reported Sunday, however, Quebec law doesn’t stipulate criteria for a mayor’s use of a veto.
“What is disturbing about the resolution tonight is that it allows the public participation process to be controlled by the city in conjunction with the developer, as opposed to vice versa,” Thomas said at the meeting. “I would prefer to have public consultation first.”
During public question period, resident Mark Abley said the resolution directs city manager Karina Verdon to negotiate in private with Cadillac Fairview on the “basis of a mandate letter no members of the public have been allowed to see.”
“The public had no way of knowing if the mandate letter was truly in their interest. Surely it would be both weird and wrong if Members of Parliament or … the National Assembly voted on a law before any member of the public had a chance to know what the law contained.”
Abley said the resolution suits the “corporate agenda, but I don’t believe it suits the public agenda.”
About a year ago, Pointe-Claire council voted to put a temporary development freeze on several key areas in the city, including MU1 and MU2, while it overhauls its urban planning program. Cadillac Fairview subsequently took legal action against the city.
This new resolution mandates the Pointe-Claire city manager to “meet forthwith with representatives of Cadillac Fairview in-camera (to) work out with them a mutually agreeable path forward” on future site planning.
Geneviève Lussier, spokesperson for the Save Fairview Forest group, said there are many “red flags” with council’s resolution.
“Letting a private corporation with a vested financial interest have a say — and excluding the public — in what type of public participation will take place is concerning,” she said in a statement.
“The goal of this process is to remove both MU1 and MU2 prematurely from the freeze. The resolution uses the terms ‘mutually agreeable path forward,’ implying a consultation process that is mutually agreeable to both CF and the city, not necessarily one that will ensure the greatest amount of public participation,” Lussier added.
But Cowan said the resolution’s purpose “is only to get Cadillac Fairview to agree to get to the table with citizens. And if that mutually agreeable accord can’t happen, well, then Cadillac Fairview will just have to sit and watch from the sidelines.”
The resolution is “non-binding,” Stork said. “If we don’t agree with it, we tell them to go home. It’s just a start to a discussion, plain and simple.”
In April 2022, Pointe-Claire council voted to exclude the massive Cadillac Fairview parking lot project from its new Interim Control draft bylaw, or development freeze. But council later reversed that decision and put Cadillac Fairview back in the freeze.
The ICB freeze is “a temporary measure,” Cowan said. “You can’t keep dragging your heels on it. It’s been a year, this process has taken too long.”
Thomas said the city already had a timeline in place to begin public participation in revising the town’s urban plan. “There has been no delay, in my mind, whatsoever.”
jmeagher@postmedia.com
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