Czech deal bounces -The Suburban
Czech deal bounces
Bloquiste queries senator's role
By Trevor Rouse, Jason Magder and P. A. Sévigny
Parks Canada had already rejected a proposal for a Czech community centre/luxury hotel complex alongside the Lachine Canal when a Liberal senator and Sud-Ouest borough councillors attended a March 21 meeting with agency officials, The Suburban has learned.
According to sources, Senator Raymond Lavigne was accompanied to the March 21 meeting in Ottawa by Sud-Ouest borough councillors Lynn Hamel and Robert Bousquet. The meeting took place prior to a public information session in the borough, called to discuss a height derogation which would allow the addition of a six-storey luxury hotel to the community centre project.
In 2002, Czech community centre promoter George Syrovatka paid a dollar for a 99-year lease on the lot on Peel Basin, a widening of the Lachine Canal at the intersection of Olier and du Séminaire. The site is part of a 1.5 million-square-foot Parks Canada parcel adjacent to the proposed Montreal Casino hotel/ entertainment complex. In return, Syrovatka undertook to decontaminate the land within two years.
Although the decontamination has yet to proceed, Syrovatka presented the borough with a revised proposal in January. He asked for an exemption from the zone’s 12-metre heigh limitation to permit the addition of a 25-metre luxury hotel to the project, arguing that the hotel’s revenues were crucial to making the centre self-supporting.
But Parks Canada confirms it had already rejected the hotel project by the time the meeting with Lavigne and the Sud-Ouest borough councillors was called for March 21.
According to spokesperson Nicole Racette, the promoters presented their expanded hotel project on Jan. 31.
“Parks Canada sent a letter refusing the proposal on February 11,” Racette said Tuesday.
Racette also confirmed the March 21 meeting was called at the request of the “Centre Tcheque and Senator Lavigne.
“It’s normal for a local MP or senator to present a project of this kind to the minister’s office,” she added. “There’s nothing wrong there.”
Parks Canada is still interested in the original proposal, Racette told The Suburban.
Bousquet and Hamel initially voted in favour of the expanded project, but announced at last week’s council meeting they would defer the derogation until Parks Canada concludes a probe of the entire transaction.
Neither Bousquet nor Lavigne had returned The Suburban’s calls by presstime. Hamel was unavailable for comment.
The third member of the Sud-Ouest borough council, chairwoman Jacqueline Montpetit, says she declined an invitation to the March 21 meeting.
“I didn’t go to the meeting because it was the promoter who asked me to go. I didn’t want to defend the promoter’s project,” Montpetit said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “Everyone wants a property on the Lachine Canal....Why should a promoter get a property for one dollar to build a hotel?”
Montpetit said she was surprised to learn that Lavigne had attended the meeting.
“I don’t know why he was there...The process isn’t transparent...As long as the process is not clear I will oppose the project.”
Former Jeanne-Le Ber Bloc Québécois candidate Thierry St-Cyr is demanding that Lavigne’s successor, Jeanne-Le Ber MP and Canadian Heritage Minister Liza Frulla, probe the deal in her home riding.
“We heard that the purpose of the meeting was to unblock the dossier, but in the last borough council meeting, we heard Bousquet say it was just to get information,” said St-Cyr, who lost to Frulla in the 2004 election by 72 votes.
“Why is a senator and not the MP in charge of the file? Why was this land suddenly made available without a call for tenders and without consultation? If the information that we have now confirms it, she should stop this project because it doesn’t make sense to give land worth $1 million to a promoter.”
St-Cyr isn’t alone in questioning the deal. At last week’s borough council meeting, Bousquet’s attempt to justify the decision to defer voting on the rezoning bylaw until next month’s council meeting was challenged by borough activist Marc Tremblay.
“The people won’t forget this,” Tremblay told Bousquet. “Stop taking us for granted…Stop trying to fool us!”
“What more do they need to know?” he said later. “This deal stinks, and if they can’t smell it, they [Bousquet and Hamel] would have to step into dog s—t before either of them knew something’s wrong.”
Prior to last week’s meeting, Montpetit said that it had become very difficult to continue working with Hamel and Bousquet as a result of their initial support for the controversial project.
“Too many questions have been raised about this project, its dubious merits and the credibility of its promoter for any of us to have anything more to do with it,” Montpetit said.
2005-08-10 09:08:42
Bloquiste queries senator's role
By Trevor Rouse, Jason Magder and P. A. Sévigny
Parks Canada had already rejected a proposal for a Czech community centre/luxury hotel complex alongside the Lachine Canal when a Liberal senator and Sud-Ouest borough councillors attended a March 21 meeting with agency officials, The Suburban has learned.
According to sources, Senator Raymond Lavigne was accompanied to the March 21 meeting in Ottawa by Sud-Ouest borough councillors Lynn Hamel and Robert Bousquet. The meeting took place prior to a public information session in the borough, called to discuss a height derogation which would allow the addition of a six-storey luxury hotel to the community centre project.
In 2002, Czech community centre promoter George Syrovatka paid a dollar for a 99-year lease on the lot on Peel Basin, a widening of the Lachine Canal at the intersection of Olier and du Séminaire. The site is part of a 1.5 million-square-foot Parks Canada parcel adjacent to the proposed Montreal Casino hotel/ entertainment complex. In return, Syrovatka undertook to decontaminate the land within two years.
Although the decontamination has yet to proceed, Syrovatka presented the borough with a revised proposal in January. He asked for an exemption from the zone’s 12-metre heigh limitation to permit the addition of a 25-metre luxury hotel to the project, arguing that the hotel’s revenues were crucial to making the centre self-supporting.
But Parks Canada confirms it had already rejected the hotel project by the time the meeting with Lavigne and the Sud-Ouest borough councillors was called for March 21.
According to spokesperson Nicole Racette, the promoters presented their expanded hotel project on Jan. 31.
“Parks Canada sent a letter refusing the proposal on February 11,” Racette said Tuesday.
Racette also confirmed the March 21 meeting was called at the request of the “Centre Tcheque and Senator Lavigne.
“It’s normal for a local MP or senator to present a project of this kind to the minister’s office,” she added. “There’s nothing wrong there.”
Parks Canada is still interested in the original proposal, Racette told The Suburban.
Bousquet and Hamel initially voted in favour of the expanded project, but announced at last week’s council meeting they would defer the derogation until Parks Canada concludes a probe of the entire transaction.
Neither Bousquet nor Lavigne had returned The Suburban’s calls by presstime. Hamel was unavailable for comment.
The third member of the Sud-Ouest borough council, chairwoman Jacqueline Montpetit, says she declined an invitation to the March 21 meeting.
“I didn’t go to the meeting because it was the promoter who asked me to go. I didn’t want to defend the promoter’s project,” Montpetit said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “Everyone wants a property on the Lachine Canal....Why should a promoter get a property for one dollar to build a hotel?”
Montpetit said she was surprised to learn that Lavigne had attended the meeting.
“I don’t know why he was there...The process isn’t transparent...As long as the process is not clear I will oppose the project.”
Former Jeanne-Le Ber Bloc Québécois candidate Thierry St-Cyr is demanding that Lavigne’s successor, Jeanne-Le Ber MP and Canadian Heritage Minister Liza Frulla, probe the deal in her home riding.
“We heard that the purpose of the meeting was to unblock the dossier, but in the last borough council meeting, we heard Bousquet say it was just to get information,” said St-Cyr, who lost to Frulla in the 2004 election by 72 votes.
“Why is a senator and not the MP in charge of the file? Why was this land suddenly made available without a call for tenders and without consultation? If the information that we have now confirms it, she should stop this project because it doesn’t make sense to give land worth $1 million to a promoter.”
St-Cyr isn’t alone in questioning the deal. At last week’s borough council meeting, Bousquet’s attempt to justify the decision to defer voting on the rezoning bylaw until next month’s council meeting was challenged by borough activist Marc Tremblay.
“The people won’t forget this,” Tremblay told Bousquet. “Stop taking us for granted…Stop trying to fool us!”
“What more do they need to know?” he said later. “This deal stinks, and if they can’t smell it, they [Bousquet and Hamel] would have to step into dog s—t before either of them knew something’s wrong.”
Prior to last week’s meeting, Montpetit said that it had become very difficult to continue working with Hamel and Bousquet as a result of their initial support for the controversial project.
“Too many questions have been raised about this project, its dubious merits and the credibility of its promoter for any of us to have anything more to do with it,” Montpetit said.
2005-08-10 09:08:42
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