Borough officials will not back down, says Claude Trudel

The fee envisaged by the Borough is $5 per hour for the use of a tennis court and this fee is lower than that already being charged by other boroughs in the city of Montreal. As explained in a previous article, the budget will be adopted in the beginning of December and at that time residents will be informed of the details regarding fees. However, it looks like the amount of $5 per hour (and not per player) will be charged. What remains to be decided are the arrangements for this fee for residents who do not have the Accès Verdun card.

Mr. Trudel wished to add that residents who play baseball, soccer, hockey and several other sports should already be paying fees. This is made possible through associations that oversee these players. He also cited the example of pools where swimmers pay a fee to enjoy these public facilities. In each of these cases, the Borough must not only assume the costs of construction of the facilities but also pay for their maintenance and monitoring costs.

The Borough Mayor also wanted to clarify the information regarding his commitment during his electoral campaign not to increase tennis fees. He kept a list of his commitments to voters and he confirmed that this promise was never made.

As the public is aware, the hourly fees for tennis courts are part of the “supplementary revenues” being planned by the Borough to meet its 2009 budget. Other revenue sources are also planned to this effect for a total sum of $534,000. Officials have also decreed a special tax of $0.0210 for every $100 of municipal property assessments (or $21 for every $100 of property assessments) which will generate $900,000 and which will be combined with a surplus appropriation of $475,200. These different tax charges should enable to Borough to compensate for the gap between the amounts allocated by the City of Montreal and Borough expenses.