Cramming for council

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by GEORGE MADDUX

Like all city councillors, the Snowdown representative of the opposition Democratic Coalition receives about 1,000 pages of technical documentation every Thursday evening before the monthly Monday council session. "By the time I start reading, spotting points and making question marks that require clarification most of Friday is gone," says Marvin Rotrand. "And when I start making phone calls I don't get the civil servant in question. Often they won't call me back until after the council meeting."

Rotrand notes that many councillors can be seen ripping their packages open for the first time during city council meetings, which are then conducted as if the lease was ending on the building. "We sometimes have to go 14 hours in a row, you get too exhausted to ask questions."

He also complains that unlike during the reigns of Mayors Drapeau and Doré, objections don't slow Bourque's team, which refuses to delay passage of bylaws even when there are serious questions. Since being re-elected in 1998, Bourque has halved the time opposition councillors can speak and sometimes allows for no discussion at all. Rotrand points to last year's garbage-bag bylaw, which dictates the type of bags citizens can use without being fined. "It was a real disgrace because it came up in council at 2 a.m. and closure was invoked even before anybody could speak. It's contemptuous of the opposition's right to respond publicly. It's not in the public interest."

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