by WAYNE HILTZ

A few days after the recent Grand Prix waved its checkered flag, John Burcombe took a tour of Île Notre-Dame and didn’t very much like what he saw - grandstands, giant billboards, heavy-duty barriers and a temporary four-storey media building.

"All those bleachers are over the top of trees, grass and stuff that should be a public park," says the veteran Montreal green activist. As in the case of last summer, most of the race installations will remain in place until after the Molson Indy in mid-August. Burcombe also doesn’t much like the lack of maintenance elsewhere in places that happen to be out of sight of the Casino.

"It’s bad all around. They’re just not spending any money on keeping the place up," he says. The accommodation for private promoters shows what critics contend are the real priorities of the Société du parc des îles (SPI), a para-municipal corporation that manages Notre-Dame and Jean-Drapeau islands for the city.

Robert Perreault, director of the Conseil régional de l’environnement-Montréal (CREM), says the City of Montreal should request the Formula 1 promoter dismantle all the race installations so that the public can fully enjoy the parks during most of the summer. With cost considerations of dismantling and re-installing them for the Molson Indy, however, SPI spokesperson Hélène Girard says they only take down installations that cut off public access to Île Notre-Dame, the parking lot and the beach.

However, asserts Perreault, "They don’t [make the promoter dismantle all of the installations] because they work hand-in-hand with the promoter."

Though he decries building a race course on top of "one of the most beautiful parks in Montreal," the CREM director adds that the city didn’t have to accept a second race that leads to the public inconvenience of having these installations remain on public property for a large part of the summer. But the SPI insists that the public still has full access to the racetrack, the flower gardens and the beach.

"Our mission is to offer in a harmonious way the opportunity to both enjoy nature and sports and have large events. We’re succeeding at doing that," Girard says.

Made public 10 years ago, the islands’ master plan under the then-ruling MCM mandated the SPI to progressively re-build them as a public park. Under the Bourque and Tremblay administrations, however, Perreault says it’s promoting them more for big, moneymaking international events.

As part of its mandate, the para-municipal corporation now must revise that master plan. At the recent council meeting’s question period, Mayor Gérald Tremblay promised that the public will be involved in the new plan’s writing, not only reacting to it in a public consultation.

But Burcombe remains unimpressed. "[The SPI] are going to make it so the plan fits what they think it should be," says the green activist, "rather than what they’re supposed to do."