Le maire Trudel répond à la lettre de M. Christopher Briere

Dear Mr. Briere:

I'm not in the habit of responding to open letters published by Le Magazine; however, since yours is questioning my good faith, while bombarding the readers with information that you unfortunately didn't take the trouble to check, I feel the need to reply.

For example, with regard to the collection of household waste, you are implying that the new type of collection, introduced on October 20, is a costly one for Verdunites. You will be pleased to learn, as I have in fact mentioned a number of times, on various occasions that the mere fact of having reduced the number of collections from two to one per week made it possible for us to save over 25% of the costs of these collections.

You are also insinuating that we are flouting democracy when we carry out projects. You are wrong once again. In fact, we organized a number of meetings at Centre communautaire Elgar over the past few years to inform our residents of the developments in the Pointe-sud and also in the Pointe-nord.

I must also correct you with regard to the traffic lights installed near the new Bell offices: We had announced—on the pages of this magazine—that they had been set up for obvious safety reasons and only for a short period of time, until the work at the island's entrances and exits were completed.

Since its election in November 2005, my Administration has always encouraged—in various forms—consulting, informing and involving our residents. In addition to Borough Council's regulatory meetings, we introduced Citizens' Tuesdays, we hold Town Hall Meetings in each of the neighbourhoods, we set up task forces—that include residents—to choose the orientations of certain projects, we update our website on a regular basis, we distribute relevant information to each household (for example, on new methods of household waste collections), we grant a number of interviews to local newspapers, and more.

We were elected to manage the Borough and reach decisions. In no way does this mean that we had to consult the residents on each of the decisions we make. At the time of the election in November 2009, it will be up to the Borough residents to voice their decision on our management of public affairs.

In the meantime, my team and I will continue to work relentlessly in Verdunites' interest, while trusting that they will be able to determine the truth and express their opinion of our Administration, by placing their confidence in our hands once again next year.

In closing, I assure you that I will always show transparency, while reminding you, however, of the absolute necessity to respect others' opinions and people in general as well as to respect the facts. The preciseness and concern for the accuracy of the facts shown by my Administration call for the same on the part of the people who question us.

Claude Trudel

Verdun Borough Mayor