by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

When Kelly Wilton saw a magazine geared for families in Calgary, she figured she could make a buck off the same concept in our burg. The Monkland-area resident quickly informed the folks at Info-Entrepreneur at Place Ville-Marie of her notion. They suggested she try to grab a piece of the mayor's salary. As a retired civil servant, then-mayor Bourque was already receiving a healthy pension from the city, so he chose to donate his mayoral salary for a foundation to help young entrepreneurs aged 18 to 35.

To get a grant, Wilton had to pretend she knew what she was doing. "A friend had a template for a business plan. It was a godsend. It made writing a business plan idiot-proof," she says. Six months and 33 pages later, Wilton had a document impressive enough to spur the foundation to give her $3,000. With the help of that cash, she scored another five grand from the province and got on a federal program that allowed her to receive unemployment insurance for 18 months. Since its launch in November 1998, Montreal Families has grown from a 12-page quarterly with a dozen ads to a 44-page monthly with 175 ads.

"They also call you two or three times a year to see if you need any more help. That's probably even more helpful than the money they give," she says.

The Mayor's Foundation for Youth started with one employee seven years ago, doling out $110,000 to applicants who lived in and planned to start businesses within the city of Montreal. Nowadays, the fund gives out $400,000 per annum and those living anywhere on the island now have a crack at the cash.

But unlike Bourque, current Mayor Gérald Tremblay opts not to contribute his $135,000 salary to the good effort. "I think it'd be a bit ridiculous to think that he should give up his salary," says Foundation director-general Marguerite Blais. "It wouldn't be fair to ask a mayor to give his salary. This mayor needs the money, perhaps."

About one-third of the 200 annual applicants receive grants of up to $20,000. Much of that cash goes to newbie computer-program creators and unknown artists. "We try to help first-time cultural projects like someone's first CD or play. We try to help those less known, people who haven't already gotten a grant elsewhere," says Blais.

Among those who have benefited from the $1,850,000 handed out over the years are Mariouche Gagné, who designs and deals recycled furs from Atwater and St-Antoine, and Ofer Avital, a McGill grad who has invented software that helps doctors prescribe medical treatments. A Hasidic bakery, a Caribbean juice manufacturer and a company that invented a machine to smell odours are also on the list of past recipients.

Blais admits that the foundation was initially slow to give out to minorities - they've just recently given to a Chinese applicant for the first time. She blames the media. "For a long time journalists didn't want to speak of the Mayor's Foundation because they thought it was a political thing," she says. :