Themes, tags, keywords and great projects

The availability of schools is one of the most powerful inducements for families to leave Montreal and settle in the suburbs. An abundance of schools is found in these cities (most of them recently built), as is shown in the table below. With the goal of keeping families and young couples, and attracting families with children to Montreal, demand that the Ministère de l’éducation work with the Montreal Island school boards to:

• build primary schools in the downtown area and in central neighbourhoods as necessary;
• maintain the renovation program for Montreal schools;
• negotiate an agreement with the school boards to ensure that the sale of unused properties and buildings does not hurt Montreal’s long-term capacity to accept students. Buildings and properties that are temporarily superfluous could be converted into community centres, local employment centres, daycares, etc.

Define and begin the Entrée maritime de Montréal project, affecting 2,500 metres of river shoreline in Montreal (from Bonsecours Street to Cuvillier Street, approximately), the eastern tip of Ile Sainte-Hélène, and the corresponding section of seaway in Longueuil. In total, there are 150 hectares of land for redevelopment. This project will maximize the population's access to the river, concurrently allowing for several thousand new houses, businesses and public facilities. The eastern tip of Ile Sainte- Hélène will be reserved for a prestigious structure, in the manner of the Sydney Opera House in Australia. This project will in no way hinder future development of the Port of Montreal.

Since the New Tramway will be the principle mode of transit service to this new Montreal neighbourhood, the Entrée maritime de Montreal project will put an end to attempts to transform Notre-Dame Street into an urban highway. In its place, Projet Montréal proposes a true urban boulevard.

Maintain and develop the capacity to host international events.

Actively promote Montreal's status as a capital of new media. With its Cité du Multimédia and a panoply of events relating to new media, Montreal is a major player in the virtual world. The City of Montreal will initiate a contest that creates a real-time link between some of the world's cultural metropolises, such as Barcelona, Paris, London, Venice, Berlin or New York.

Make Montreal the North American capital of open-source software (freeware) by capitalizing on the strength of its information technology industry, the diversity of its cultural communities, and the importance of the City of Montreal's investments in information technology. This industry is currently at a turning point — not a month goes by without a government or a public administration (United Kingdom, Brazil, Netherlands, Malaysia, India, etc.) announcing its decision to favour the use of open- source software. The steps to be taken are as follows:

• Favour open-source software and standards in municipal operations and activities;
• Promote the development of open-source software for municipalities. Follow the example of ADDULACT in France and create a web site dedicated to this type of software in partnership with interested municipalities in order to share development costs;
• Participate in important international events that promote open-source software.

Following the example of Barcelona, Lyon or Chicago, hold an annual competition for public outdoor art in order to erect sculptures or other types of art for all major urban redevelopment projects (Tramway line construction, commercial arteries and pedestrian zones), or in the immediate vicinity of a metro station, or for major projects such as the Entrée maritime de Montréal. This program will be endowed with a yearly budget of $5 million.

In order to enhance St-Paul and Ste-Catherine streets and McGill College and Mont- Royal avenues as pedestrian arteries, develop an annual program of artistic and cultural activities in collaboration with both cultural representatives and neighbouring residents, and promote these walkways as crossroads of expression. These activities would extend Montreal’s touristic potential beyond the summer season.

Protect Montreal’s architectural, natural and cultural heritage by applying existing legislation and refusing to modify it piecemeal to gratify developers. Take the lead in setting up groups of public and private investors dedicated to the safeguard of our collective heritage (e.g.: the Motherhouse of the Sisters of the Saints-Noms-de-Jésus- et-de-Marie, the philosophy seminary of Saint-Sulpice). Preserve, to public and communal ends, the architectural patrimony owned by the city. Facilitate the purchase, cooperatively or by long-term lease, of live-and-work space for artists and craftspeople, in order to shelter from market speculation those spaces dedicated to cultural production.

Reserve our churches, an invaluable collective heritage, for public, communal, cultural and social uses. Obtain the Government of Quebec’s collaboration to this end.

The notion of what constitutes patrimony is in constant evolution. In the interest of enriching our urban collectivity, enable every cultural community to assume a place in Montreal civic life by enjoying a physical and symbolic presence, through the promotion of public spaces, commercial and service axes, cultural and recreational events with touristic potential and appropriate architectural design. Montreal’s heritage will be enriched in a spirit of openness, collaboration and cultural exchange.

Enhance Montreal’s status as a UNESCO-designated City of Design by hosting an important biennial international conference on architecture and urban design. Provide a showcase for research and expertise on the redevelopment of cities in accordance with twenty-first century priorities. Position Montreal at the North American vanguard of architecture, urban and territorial planning and design.

In the short term, index the annual budget of the Conseil des arts de Montréal to the rate of inflation. Once past the current economic downturn, index the budget to the rate of economic growth, thus allowing the Conseil to increase its sphere of influence and support and to keep pace with the participation of other economic actors.

Every year, one thousand cultural associations organize five thousand cultural events on the island of Montreal. Projet Montréal recognizes the dynamism of Montreal’s cultural associations, numbering three hundred folk-dance groups, one hundred traditional music and dance associations, over two thousand musicians, six ecomuseums and four hundred public-access festivals, and pledges the following:

• To support cultural associations in their endeavour to preserve and sustain our cultural heritage;
• To encourage access to intercultural activities as a means of building and humanizing our city and gearing it to the future;
• To improve accessibility for artists and craftspeople in the field of cultural expression to existing places of cultural diffusion, such as the Maisons de la culture;
• To acquire professional expertise in order to respond constructively to the needs of those who foster cultural expression in our city.

Impose a moratorium on the conversion into residential properties of structures currently serving as studios for artists, craftspeople and other creative enterprises. These are often situated in or near industrial sites; for example, along the CP rail lines or the Lachine Canal. The conversion of these sites into residential units threatens a vital source of Montreal’s artistic wealth – the existence on its territory of affordable, multifunctional spaces in the midst of, and in step with, other forms of urban creativity. In the interest of ensuring the survival of artistic creation in the center and post-industrial areas elsewhere in the city, draw up a policy to regulate on a city-wide basis the use of Montreal’s disused industrial structures as well as the zoning changes now made borough-by-borough that adversely affect the artistic community.

Guarantee stable and renewed financing of our municipal libraries to ensure they can carry out their mandate and adjust to growing need. Bring an end to ongoing negotiations with the provincial government and conclude the systematization of a library network. Specifically:

• Ensure that citizens enjoy the same level of service regardless of where they live in the city. The Conseil d’agglomération must be sensitized to the need for sharing resources between boroughs and associated municipalities;
• Bring libraries closer to the citizenry, especially to children and students. To this end, establish three libraries of median status and locate them strategically in the city with a view to maximum proximity for the greatest number. Outfit them with quality material and increase human resources (language specialists, longer opening hours). These measures would relieve pressure on the Grande bibliothèque;
• Use public libraries as resource centers for welcoming and socially integrating recent immigrants;
• Open the Grande bibliothèque seven days a week.

Enable and maintain partnerships among a range of municipal services, between cultural venues in the various boroughs, the city’s museums, school commissions, cultural associations and artistic communities.

Issue a real passport to cultural education, healthful leisure and urban mobility by creating the CAMC card: Carte Autobus+Métro+Culture. This card will offer a preferential tariff to Montreal residents for public transit and free access to cultural centers, libraries, museums, sporting venues and green and blue spaces, as well as to the Botanical Gardens, the Planetarium and the Biodome. Offer tourists a version of the CAMC card for 1-, 3- or 7- day access to facilities.

Consolidate the network of cultural venues in our boroughs to ensure accessibility to the greatest number and integrate all neighbourhood facilities into an interconnected grid that favours cultural activity, learning and creativity. To make this possible:

• Encourage the emergence of new places of artistic and cultural diffusion;
• Centralize and make available on a single portal all the information essential to their emergence: regulation, legal information and counseling, available financing (subsidies, prizes and competitions, tax benefits), organizations and resource
  people, a complete list of artistic associations, calendar of events (festivals, etc.);
• Recognize and promote private initiative in this sphere of activity;
• Lend support to borough associations that bring together actors in the field of culture with a view to upholding the interests specific to each area of the city.

Further Montreal’s involvement with and active contribution to international networks and cultural heritage alliances: World Historical Cities, Creative Cities, United Cities and Local Governments, etc.

Start preparations to celebrate Montreal’s 375th anniversary in 2017, exactly fifty years after Man and his World. For example, promote exchanges of a historical and cultural nature with the thirty or so North American cities founded by the first citizens of Montreal. Establish a program of public art by artists from Montreal and across Quebec.

Adapt to seasonal climatic variations, which have become more and more pronounced, instead of setting fixed opening and closing dates in advance for winter and summer sports facilities (such as ice rinks, soccer and baseball fields, basketball and tennis courts), even delegating some maintenance to citizens' groups, as is already the case with snow clearing on rinks.

Ensure that the City of Montreal and the boroughs cooperate with school boards to maximize the potential of public infrastructure and facilities, particularly recreational facilities.

Plan public spaces that meet the needs and expectations of young people by involving them in the planning and construction of rollerblade facilities. Rollerblading allows young people to be involved in a sport, to get along in groups and develop their sense of belonging as well as participate in a form of artistic expression.