LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Agglo tax grab

The Montreal agglomeration council keeps ripping off reconstituted suburbs with unwarranted taxes and this time it's blatant. Pointe Claire and Beaconsfield have a totally independent water supply and do not get a drop from the Montreal system. We pay our own municipalities directly and heavily for all our water. Yet we are now being billed by the agglomeration for a special water service tax. This charge is explicitly outlined on the invoice and all its accompanying literature.

When I phoned the agglomeration to complain, I was told that the tax was for sewers, not water — regardless of what the bill said.

So this is either another smoke-and-mirrors tax grab, or the agglomeration doesn't know what it is taxing us for, or it changes its story if it gets complaints. That outfit needs someone who is competent and accountable to run it.



M. D. Arthur

Beaconsfield

What happened?

Open letter to Pierrefonds/Roxboro officials

Below is a petition from the residents of Brown Street in Pierrefonds. We are not sure what has happened to Pierrefonds but we find many streets have been badly neglected as far as snow removal and de-icing goes. We are mostly concerned about our own street, which is Brown Street. Ever since the city has merged with Montreal, the service on Brown Street has deteriorated drastically. The fire hydrant is completely buried in a mountain of snow. Many residents have called the city, which resulted in no effort from them to come and see the conditions of our street. On March 20, a resident had called public services to come and see the street due to the ice on the street making it un-drivable due to the ice rubbing on the bottom of our cars. Since no-one called back, a resident called back on March 25 to have the public service manager contact her. No response from anyone from the city returning the calls. The street has not been widened once which results in us having to maneuver considerably just to get out of our driveways, playing bumper pool with the snow banks. Even worse, we cannot see oncoming traffic which is a high risk for accidents. Brown Street belongs to the city, therefore it is their responsibility to keep it safe. We are all taxpayers and if, as of March 2, we do not pay our taxes you are the first to charge us interest. Who do we charge for damages under our vehicles due to the city not doing its job?

Your by-law of no parking at night due to snow removal should be deleted due to the fact that there is snow removal on Brown Street day or night. We would appreciate someone from the city who has the heart to hear their citizens, to react to the negligence that has been happening.

Anna Madran

Pierrefonds

Tel: 514-620-2831 (home)

Cell: 514-291-8880

e-mail: you can send at home under maestro2002@videotron.ca



Public transit woes

It was reported in The Chronicle, March 19 ('Roxboro seeks parking suggestions') that there would be a consultation at the end of April to reveal the new traffic proposals for the area around the Roxboro-Pierrefonds train station.

The situation had become problematic, because several dozen cars are parked illegally in the streets of Roxboro, next to the train station, because the AMT has not provided enough parking spaces.

The Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough council approved a new bylaw at its January session, permitting motorists to park all day along most streets in Roxboro, which caused a traffic hazard.

When citizens voiced opposition to this plan at the March council session, the borough decided to hire the services of CIMA+ to do a study and offer solutions. But in a phone conversation with councillor Christian Dubois, it was confirmed that taxpayers will not be allowed to give their input to CIMA+. This meeting at the end of April will not be a consultation, but just an information session. The concerns of the taxpayers and residents of this area will be ignored, so that the streets of Roxboro may continue to be a parking lot for the train station.

Ed Hoyer

Roxboro