Op-Ed: Trusting Trent

by Marilynn Gillies

At the last council meeting on June 6, 2011, there was a conversation between a citizen and the Mayor about the mutual lack of trust that exists, a mistrust which first started when synthetic turf was to be placed in Westmount Park.

There are several similarities between then and now. A glaring one being that of the needs analysis for the synthetic turf and now the one for the arena-pool complex.

There’s no spirit anymore of cooperation.  The only people who seem to be interested in this project are those that are against it…  It’s very difficult to have a trusting conversation.

--Peter Trent

The reason given in 2006 for needing synthetic turf was that the fields were used 10 hours a day, seven days a week. Those of us who live by fields knew that this was wrong. We knew that soccer was played mostly in the late afternoon or early evening for six weeks in the spring, and in fact, there were not enough numbers to have a fall session. The synthetic turf was wanted by certain figures in the city administration and thus the need was found in an attempt to see that they got the artificial grass.

Today, the needs analysis for the arena pool project is again obviously designed to allow interested parties in the city to get what they want.

…I don’t trust the other side, too.  We have a huge gulf.

–Peter Trent

A small example of how mistrust can start is seen below, a copy of a portion of the needs analysis concerning the need for swimming pools. This can be seen on the city’s web-site on page 5 and the text in French is found here below. The analysis starts by saying that Westmount has one indoor pool on its territory and one outdoor pool. It says that Westmount is well served in regards to indoor aquatic activity and Westmount is similar to the average in Quebec and similar to the reconstituted cities. Reading the analysis, one sees the claim that Westmount, a city of 20,494 people, has one indoor pool. However, at the end of the table, we discover that the pool cited is the YMCA facility. The analysis continues to describe the hours allotted by the YMCA to the city and other information about the Y. The Y is not a municipal pool, and the hours allotted  for Westmount don’t come close to providing for Westmount’s needs.

(From Westmount Needs Analysis)

Portrait de la situation actuelle

En matière d’activités aquatiques intérieures, nous retrouvons une piscine intérieure sur le territoire de Westmount pour un ratio d’une piscine pour 20 494 habitants comparativement à une piscine extérieure pour 27 000 personnes selon notre indicateur témoin. En d’autres termes, la Ville de Westmount serait bien pourvue en équipements aquatiques intérieurs sur son territoire par rapport aux moyennes observées au Québec. Cette offre serait similaire avec la moyenne observée dans les villes reconstituées.

Another item which leads one to mistrust the document is the fact that the demographic area used for the needs analysis was CLSC Metro of which Westmount is only a part, but by no means typical. CLSC Metro has a population of 60,000 people and the analysis said that the growth rate in this area was 39 percent for 5 to 14 year olds, and took this demographic as a profile for Westmount and used it to justify the need for extra ice in Westmount.

Another topic that leads to mistrust is the continuous assertion by the city that citizens will get an acre of extra green space with the arena-pool project. The architect from LeMay says that “green space wins” with this project. Will the extra acre of green space added to the park as part of the arena-pool project, be like two-thirds of the playing fields, fenced in to keep those of us who pay for it outside of it? And we should remember that the mayor at that time said there would be no fences.

Last, but not least, is the use by Mayor Trent at the June council meeting and at the meeting June 21 for people living in the area of the project of the number 5000 people when he talks about people in favour of the project.

All seeds of mistrust.