NO CAVENDISH EXTENSION!

The long sought-after Cavendish extension linking the City of Côte Saint-Luc with the Saint Laurent Borough is “off the table,” says longtime Montreal traffic consultant Rick Leckner, a definitive no, according to his sources at the City of Montreal.

Leckner spoke with The Suburban at a town hall meeting in Côte Saint-Luc on Monday night. City councillors Michael Cohen (District 2) and Dida Berku (District 3) hosted the town hall held specifically to discuss Cavendish. Also on hand was Mayor Mitchell Brownstein, former Mayor Robert Libman, Leckner, and Ensemble Montreal councillor Jacques Cohen of the Saint Laurent borough.

There are few in Montreal who know the city’s roads and traffic issues as well as Leckner, who was CJAD’s chief traffic reporter for decades. He says he hopes the city’s position will change – as it has many times over the more than six decades that the Cavendish extension has been a matter of debate. “Despite the many, many promises by the City of Montreal,” Leckner told The Suburban, “the latest indication is that the two Cavendishes will not be connected.”

That constitutes a serious about-face for Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante, who is on record as saying “We’re doing Cavendish for sure!”, as she said in an interview on the Aaron Rand Show on CJAD just last year. In fact, during the meeting Leckner played the recording several times.

By changing her mind on the Cavendish extension, Leckner said, Plante is holding the people hostage.

(Earlier in the week Plante appeared on 98.5 FM to announce that her plan for Camillien-Houde will be put on hold during the eight years that the Docteur-Penfield will be closed for the McTavish Reservoir refurb. “We are not going to hold motorists and citizens hostage,” she said at the time).

Berku has been fighting this issue almost since her start as a CSL city councillor. She was first elected under Bernard Lang, who was adamantly against the extension, whereas every mayor since – Libman, Anthony Housefather, and Mitchell Brownstein – have been strongly in favour. And all list several reasons including the need for emergency egress and the economic benefits for residents and area merchants.

Berku presented a Power Point showing the different schemes for a Cavendish extension presented over the years, pointing out every time that Montreal supported the issue, only to rescind support soon after. Libman, who was CSL mayor from 1998 to 2002, provided that historical perspective.

All of those on the panel pointed out that, although the Cavendish extension is not the deciding factor in the Namur-Hippodrome project – the City of Montreal has proposed alternate routes – it is the one that makes the most sense. And though all have said that not one penny of government money, neither provincial nor federal, should be spent on the project, they all expressed dismay that when Prime Minister Mark Carney was in town last week, he pledged $84 million for infrastructure and housing projects, including Namur-Hippodrome.

All on the panel repeated several times that what is needed is a change of regime at City Hall, calling on Jacques Cohen to, via Saint Laurent Borough Mayor Alan DaSousa, put pressure on Ensemble Montreal leader Soraya Martinez Ferrada to support a Cavendish extension.

“There’s an election in two months,” Leckner said, “and people have to get out there…and they have to vote in the people who will at least understand the need for Cavendish and find a proper solution.”