Housing Starts Fall Short In August

Despite economists’ predictions of 200,000 housing starts last month, CMHC reports that the actual data fell short of analyst expectation.
Seasonally adjusted housing starts for August 2011 were 184,700 units in August, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). This signals a drop from July, when housing starts totalled 204,500 units.
“Housing starts in August were in line with current demographic fundamentals and are consistent with CMHC’s recent Housing Market Outlook,” said Mathieu Laberge, Deputy Chief Economist at CMHC’s Market Analysis Centre. “Housing starts decreased in all regions, except the Prairies with the decline being more pronounced in the multiples segment.”
Urban starts fell by 10.2 % to 165,800 units in August. Multiple urban starts fell by 15.5 % to 101,400 units, while urban single starts fell by 0.3 % in August to 64,400 units. Estimates for rural starts came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 18,900 units in August.
Looking at starts in various regions across the country for August, urban starts fell by 41.4 % in the Atlantic region, by 15.3 % in British Columbia, by 11.8 % in Ontario and by 8.8 % in Quebec,. In the Prairie Provinces though, urban starts actually increased by 9.4 % in the Prairie region in the comparable time period.

Property Wire Canada

House prices post biggest gain in two years

Canada's economy may have hit the skids in June, but house prices across the country still jumped almost 2%, the biggest one-month increase in two years, the latest Teranet-National Bank National Composite House Price Index report said Wednesday.

Canadian house prices were up 1.7% in June compared with the previous month, the biggest month-on-month jump since August 2009, taking the index to a new high of 144.27, the report said.

This is the third straight monthly increase of more than 1% and the seventh straight rise in a row. The index is also up 4.5% compared with a year ago.

The news comes the same day Statistics Canada reported the Canadian economy actually shrank 0.4% annualized in the second quarter, the first contraction since mid-2009.

Prices were up in all six major metropolitan markets surveyed, with Toronto leading the pack at a 2% increase. Vancouver and Ottawa came in at 1.7%, while Calgary posted a 1.6% rise, Montreal was up 1.1% and Halifax by 1%.

This is the ninth straight monthly increase for Vancouver, and index highs for five of the six cities.

Calgary is 10.9% off its record high in August 2007.

Since Teranet first started tracking prices in June 2005 with a base level of 100, home prices have jumped 44.27%.

The Vancouver index leads the pack at 167.77, suggesting prices have gone up 67.77% since 2005.

Toronto, meanwhile, has the lowest index rating at 131.26, meaning prices have accelerated only 31.26% in that time.

erlam@nationalpost.com
© The Financial Post

How to choose a reat estate agent

Finding the right real estate agent to list a home can be a lot like finding a life partner - pick the right one and the experience can be positive. Choose the wrong agent and the experience can lead to months of frustration and an unsold house.

Ted Baker recently sold his mother's house and shares the trials and tribulations from his experience. Tony Joe, a real estate agent with Re/Max Camosun Oak Bay, was the listing agent and shares his insight on today's changing market.

For some people it's not difficult to choose a real estate agent - they pick one based on personal recommendation from friends and family. According to a report by the National Association of Realtors, more than half of home buyers found their agent this way.

"People typically go with people they know," says Joe, who has been selling for 20 years. "For the consumer's standpoint its all about networking. Unlike other areas of sales, real estate agents have access to the same inventory pool. What sets them apart is their level of experience, professionalism, knowledge and . marketing or negotiation style."

He says that more than 90 per cent of his business is from referrals, compared with the industry average of 50 per cent.

"Personality has a lot to do with it," says Baker, who used to do renovation work on homes. "One needs to be able to rely on the capability of the agent to get the job done."

To help you select an agent with the right skills, testimonials, experience, competence and reliability, here are a few pointers.

BE PREPARED

Information is power. Baker suggest people get an independent appraisal - which costs about $125 - to get an independent third-party evaluation of the property.

A pre-sale home inspection is also useful to identify and correct potential problems in a house. A buyer will likely uncover the same issue when they get the house inspected as a condition of the sale.

BEWARE OF AN AGENT TRYING TO BUY A LISTING

In order to secure a listing, some agents will purposely overvalue a home. They tell potential clients they can get more for a house than other agents.

Because the inflated house is more expensive than comparable homes, it will linger on the market until the price is lowered.

"Ask the real estate agent to justify the price," says Baker. "Ask to see listings of homes for sale in the last three to four months for comparison."

INTERVIEW PROSPECTIVE REALTORS

Increasingly people interview a number of agents to determine if the "chemistry" works.

"Ask about productivity," says Joe. "Real estate is a complicated process. Find out about the agent's knowledge and experience."

ASK ABOUT EXPECTATIONS

"When I interviewed different agents, I asked them 'What are you going to do for me?' " says Baker. Some agents have a detailed written plan about how they will advertise and market a property.

ASK FOR RECOMMENDATIONS

Any agent who has been selling for a while should have a list of happy customers. Many people would trust a recommendation by a friend or family member. As a last resort, a person can review a real estate agent's qualifications by viewing their website.

ASK ABOUT COMMISSIONS

Real estate agents can be flexible as to the commission structure. Most charge six or seven per cent on the first $100,000 and three per cent on the balance. Some have a flat percentage of the total price. On a $500,000 house, with the above 7/3 calculation, a seller would pay the agent $19,000. Finding an agent who will sell for less will obviously affect the bottom line.

"The only question I regretted not asking was if the agent would reduce his commission if the house sold within 30 days," says Baker. "Because there would be less work involved - fewer open houses, fewer showings - shouldn't the cost of selling also go down?"

Also, when an offer is tendered and the parties are slightly apart, it is appropriate to ask if the agent is willing to forgo a portion of their commission in order to secure the sale.

FIND OUT IF THE AGENT IS GENEROUS TO OTHER AGENTS

One of the reasons a person lists a home with a real estate agent and the professional listing service is because he wants other real estate agents showing the home to their clients.

A listing agent who is generous in sharing the potential commission with others typically gets more house viewings.

"Not all agents work well with others," says Joe.

FIND OUT HOW MANY OTHER LISTINGS AN AGENT HAS

"An agent with 50 listings is spread out too thin," says Baker. "There's no way an agent with that many listings can put time into a sale."

He is more comfortable listing with an agent who has, at most, 10 listings to service.

FIND THE MARKET THE AGENT IS TARGETING

It is important that the agent chosen has experience both in the property type and price range. If he primarily sells luxury houses, he is not likely going to have many buyers looking for an entry-level condominium, for example.

FIND AN AGENT WHO KNOWS THE REGIONAL MARKET

Baker says he recommends finding an agent who works within 15 kilometres of the listed home. "He will know the area and he will know the market better."

113 McNaughten, Hudson is sold!

113 McNaughten, Hudson is sold! Listed at $215,000.
Listed by Diane/Paul Laflamme and sold by Royal LePage Village. Buyers and Seller are thrilled! Congratulations to everyone!

Gordon Ramsay takes over Montreal landmark

MONTREAL — Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay arrived with what he hoped would be reassuring news for fans of the landmark Laurier BBQ restaurant he has taken over.

“The mocha cake is staying,” he announced Tuesday. Just don’t bloody ask that it be heated in the microwave, as had been the custom. “From a chef’s point of view, to stick a dessert in the microwave, it hurts,” he said. “God it hurts. It’s like sticking a knife in, twisting and putting it even further.”

For generations, Laurier BBQ has been an institution in francophone Montreal, where families dined on the same rotisserie chicken and mocha cake, served by the same waitresses, surrounded by the same folksy décor. Over the restaurant’s 75 years, a who’s who of Quebec society has slipped into its booths, from Pierre Trudeau and Robert Bourassa to Celine Dion and actor Donald Pilon.

The news last year that the Michelin-starred, foul-mouthed Brit was taking over the Outremont restaurant for his first Canadian venture felt a bit like the twisting of a knife to faithful customers. In the weeks before it closed for renovations in April, the place was more packed than it had been in years, with people sitting in for a nostalgic last meal.

As he prepared for Wednesday’s opening of the rechristened Laurier Gordon Ramsay, the chef described his initiative as a mere “repositioning” of the restaurant, but he made it clear that this is not anyone’s grandmother’s Rotisserie Laurier.

“Unfortunately businesses don’t survive on nostalgia, and this business was ignored for the last 10 years,” he told reporters. People pining for the old days should consider that the alternative was losing the restaurant altogether, he said.

“The business would never have survived. That’s the sad thing about it. Did I want to see it closed, knocked down and a shoe shop or clothes shop in the place of it? No. It’s got too much history.”

La Presse food critic Marie-Claude Lortie, who ate one of her first restaurant meals at the Laurier and took her own children there as babies, is among those nostalgic for the old Laurier BBQ. It is the place where Mr. Trudeau ate coconut pie and debated politics into the night during the 1960s, the restaurant of choice of her own father-in-law, the late Quebec Liberal leader Claude Ryan.

“A lot of the fun of going there was to be in that retro atmosphere and to feel it was exactly the same as when I was a kid,” she said. The menu preserves variations on many of the old favourites, including poutine and rotisserie chicken, but the interior has undergone a complete facelift, with a gleaming new bar and glassed-in wine cellar.

“It’s difficult to imagine that the spirit will continue, that you will still go there and find the university students and the grandparents and the young parents with young kids, who went there themselves as young kids,” Ms. Lortie said.

Mr. Ramsay made no apologies for targeting a new demographic, for whom an innovative cocktail list and bottles of Pol Roger champagne will be the draw as much as the comfortingly familiar chicken.

“We have our existing clientele that will be here at 4:30 in the afternoon, a little bite to eat before bed time,” he said. “Then at 6:30, when you finish work, we’ll have a nice hip, funky, moving bar in there.”

The pairing of Mr. Ramsay, whose restaurant in London’s Chelsea district holds three Michelin stars, the maximum awarded by the gastronomic bible, and a fairly humble chicken joint raised plenty of eyebrows when it was announced last fall.

Mr. Ramsay, who oversaw development of the Laurier menu but will leave cooking to Montrealer Guillermo Russo, said the formula is right for difficult economic times. Aside from a rib eye steak at $26, the most expensive main courses on the menu are $16.

“We’re not going fine dining. We’re not going Michelin star. We’re going for affordable glam,” he said. “In England, it’s called shabby chic.”

Mr. Russo, 31, who has previously worked at Lucien and The Black Hoof restaurants in Toronto, grew up a few blocks from the Laurier. He feels the pressure of taking over the kitchen of an institution and promises not to stray too far from its roots. “Montreal is in my heart and it’s in my mind when I’m creating the menu,” he said. He plans to buy as much of his food locally as possible. And he won’t be using a microwave.

National Post

Hudson mansion buyer not returning calls

MONTREAL - Desperate for a final sale, John Hooper was willing to accept an auction result that he felt undervalued his Hudson estate by millions of dollars.

But with the highest bidder no longer returning his calls, Hooper has been forced to put the luxury estate back on the market for the $3.4 million it won in Quebec’s first absolute auction last month.

“The final price, it wasn’t the best price but it allowed us to do what we wanted to do. We weren’t trying to be greedy. We just wanted to move on with our lives,” said Hooper, 70, an entrepreneur and scientist, who helped build the now defunct company Phoenix International Life Sciences Inc.

“Now it’s clear that the buyer hasn’t fulfilled her obligations. We don’t know what the cause is because we can’t reach her.

“They (the U.S. company that ran the auction) are unhappy. We’re unhappy.”

Sources familiar with the estate say the buyer, despite making a $100,000 cash deposit, didn’t have adequate financing to complete the transaction.

The auctioning of the sprawling eight bedroom estate, complete with an indoor pool, guest house and secret passage, generated national headlines.

While luxury homes have been successfully sold to the highest bidders in Montreal and Toronto, an absolute auction – where there is no minimum bid – is unheard of in Canada.

Even worse, Hooper’s spent money out of pocket on glossy brochures marketing the property and on expensive advertisements in papers like the New York Times.

To sell the estate that Hooper and his wife spent $5.5 million to develop in 2000, the couple are inviting prospective buyers to spend a weekend at the mansion on Main St., as an “innovative” way to close the deal.


http://www.montrealgazette.com/Hudson+mansion+buyer+returning+calls/5204187/story.html

U.S. debt situation defines dysfunctional government

By L. IAN MACDONALD, Special to the Gazette

Well, of course U.S. President Barack Obama and the Democrats on one side, and House speaker John Boehner and the Republicans on the other, came to an 11th-hour deal on the American deficit and debt crisis.

Obama agreed to cut spending by $2.1 trillion over the next 10 years, in return for Congress raising the federal debt ceiling by a similar amount over the next two years.

Obama and Boehner, along with senior leaders of both parties, reached a deal on Sunday. It passed the Republican-dominated House of Representatives on Monday, and cleared the Democratcontrolled Senate on Tuesday.

You don't see that every day. But then, it was no coincidence that Aug. 2 was the U.S. government's own imposed deadline for raising the debt ceiling. After that, the U.S. Treasury announced months ago, it would simply run out of money to pay its bills.

The consequences of failing to do so were unthinkable.

First, credit-rating agencies had already let it be known that they would downgrade the credit rating of the United States from gilt-edged AAA to AA, automatically raising the cost of issuing government treasuries.

This would only have aggravated the U.S. deficit and debt situation.

(Canada had its AAA rating renewed last month, reflecting a strong economy and a solid federal fiscal framework.)

Second, with no spending authority to pay its bills, the U.S. faced a potential default on its debts. The "good faith and credit worthiness" of the United States would have been in question.

Third, a run on the U.S. dollar was a real possibility. And that could have put the greenback's status as the world's reserve currency in question. One reason the loonie has been trading around $1.06 U.S. is that our dollar is a petro currency and oil is back to the $100-per-barrel range.

Another is a flight to safe havens like the Canadian dollar.

Fourth, even the possibility of any of the above could be enough to trigger another stock-market meltdown and global financial crisis.

Just last week, the Dow had five consecutive losing sessions on the prospect of no deal in D.C., losing four per cent on the week.

In an extremely volatile session on Monday, the Dow opened up nearly 150 points on the good news of a deal, only to plunge 250 points by the lunch hour, before rallying to close down only 11 points. Elsewhere, global markets were awash in red on Monday, and opened down sharply in Asia on Tuesday.

Deal or no deal, there's no shortage of challenges and uncertainty.

The U.S. unemployment rate remains close to recession levels, at 9.2 per cent in June, nearly two points above Canada's at 7.4 per cent. Ontario alone boasts of creating more jobs in June than did the entire United States.

The U.S. youth-unemployment rate, at 18 per cent, isn't just an economic issue, it's a social problem. Manufacturing jobs are going unfilled because of a shortage of qualified technical-school graduates.

The U.S. housing market has lost about 30 per cent of its value since 2007.


At a moment when the U.S. economy could do with some additional stimulus, it's no longer available to Obama. Part of his deal with the Republicans is no new taxes, so that's out. And even while he gets to raise the debt ceiling by $2.1 trillion over two years, which gets him past the 2012 presidential election cycle without another such unedifying spectacle, he's agreed to cut spending by about the same amount over the next decade.

It sounds like a lot of money, but in terms of the U.S. deficit and debt, it's just a down payment on the deficit. The U.S. deficit of $1.6 trillion in the last fiscal year was 10 per cent of GDP. And this, in a country whose debt is now a shocking $14.3 trillion, up from $6 trillion when Bill Clinton left office in 2001. Think of more than doubling your household debt in the last 10 years.

The structural deficit problems of the U.S. can be stated in these simple terms: Washington spends more than $3 for every $2 it raises.

Part of the reason for that is systemic gridlock in Washington. There isn't really much accountability in a system that enables the president and Congress to blame one another for nothing getting done.

U.S. voters knew they were electing a divided government last fall when they gave Republicans, with the Tea Party insurgency, control of the House of Representatives.

But if they thought their government was dysfunctional then, look at it now.

imacdonald@irpp.org

All the home staging in the world won't sell an over-priced home.

“All the home staging in the world won’t sell an over-priced home.”

That’s what Nairn Friemann, a great New York home stager, told us during my first day of home staging training back in 2007. I was reminded of those words today as I went out to preview homes for sale here in Montreal’s West Island and saw a beautiful home that’s just come on the market. The home is gorgeous: not too country and not too modern, a well-renovated kitchen, nice lot, no loud colours to turn off buyers, no disproportionately large furniture eating up entire rooms, stylish accessories, lovely art and lots of light. But it’s over-priced…by quite a bit. And the agent knows it.

The owners of this home have undoubtedly heard from all of their friends that their house is absolutely stunning. And it is. But friends don’t tell you that the windows need replacing, that the garage floor is a wreck, that the roof is at the end of its life, that the low ceiling in the basement will be a problem for many buyers, and that the bathroom hasn’t been updated. (In the case of the bathroom, friends are impressed that you’ve actually managed to do so much with so little!).

But these are things that a real estate agent will consider and point out, especially a buyer’s agent.

Now, I'm both a Montreal home stager and a Montreal West Island real estate broker. So I loudly sing the praises of home staging and what it can do to help homeowners sell their home more quickly and for top dollar.

But what staging won't do is sell an over-priced listing. So sellers, when pricing your home, listen to your agent, not your friends – because all the staging in the world won’t sell an over-priced home.

Property Wire Canada

Jean Paul Gaultier - Fall 2011 Couture

Vogue
By Hamish Bowles

The hypnotic instructions of a ballet mistress and a ballet master to their classes, and the demand of the demonic choreographer in Black Swan to his hapless ballerina to embody the qualities of both the Black Swan and the White Swan, at the opening of Jean Paul Gaultier’s show, signaled the designer’s intention to explore a dark side of the fairy-tale world of tutus and feathered headdresses.

The jacket of his opening number—cut like a trench over a suave pantsuit—was given an explosion of tutu ruffles to create a bustled peplum, and romantic ballet-length skirts in sturdy tweeds had the unexpected embellishment of feathers at the hem that evoked the headdresses of ballet’s traditional swans. Gaultier used feathers with great imagination throughout the collections—tufts of multicolored marabou simulating camouflage prints or an Icelandic sweater; a feathered cockerel embellishing the sleeve of a black evening coat; and the bands of iridescent pheasant plumes streaking a full tulle skirt—with a bodice elaborately embroidered to simulate those feathers. Sadly, many of these refined effects are lost in the designer’s madcap and fast-paced show that made one long for a leisurely salon presentation.

And Gaultier continued to ring the changes on the iconic pieces that he loves. Trench coats were reenvisioned in liquid jersey, draped like the magnificent Madame Grès dresses currently on display at the Musée Bourdelle, and his biker jackets were transformed into masterpieces of elegantly tailored sobriety.

The smoky-eyed ghosts of Nijinsky and Nureyev also haunted the runway as Gaultier showed men’s couture for the fearless few—a Grès-draped white jersey cummerbund that cinched a tuxedo pant, for instance, or the sweeping capes that are emerging as a strong statement this couture season.

For a finale piece, Gaultier sent the flame-haired French pop icon Mylene Farmer, wearing a biker jacket with an exuberantly feathered and bustled net skirt that evoked the fantasy costumes that Gaultier’s idol Yves Saint Laurent created for the gamine French dancer Zizi Jeanmaire in the early sixties, out to the strains of Jeanmaire’s hit song “Mon Truc en Plumes.”

Concrete structure collapses in Ville Marie tunnel

MONTREAL - A large piece of concrete fell inside a Montreal highway tunnel Sunday morning, closing the roadway in both directions.

According to Montreal police Const. Anie Lemieux, the concrete fell just after 9 a.m. on the eastbound side of the Ville Marie Tunnel.

"The information that we have is that a structure collapsed ... near the Hotel de Ville Ave. overpass," Lemieux said. "No one has been hurt, and no one is trapped inside."

Engineers from the Transport Ministry are on-site to investigate the cause of the collapse and to ensure the rest of the tunnel is structurally sound. Although it wasn’t affected by the accident, the westbound portion of the Ville Marie was closed for inspection but has been re-opened.

“We won’t reopen the tunnel until we know it’s safe to use,” said Caroline Larose, a spokesperson for the Transport Ministry. “I can assure you the MTQ checks its structures, inspects them, repairs them has a $4 billion plan to invest in refurbishing them this year. Work is done to keep our infrastructure in shape.”

The concrete was a transversal beam installed directly over the roadway. It had been shaped into a grill-like structure with holes to allow light and air to filter into the tunnel.

At least one lane in the eastbound direction had been closed prior to the collapse as a result of repair work to the Tunnel’s walls. A tunnel linking the new CHUM hospital to the Champ de Mars metro station was being dug about 500 meters east of the where the beam collapsed. It remains unclear if the construction had anything to do with the concrete falling. There were workers on the site Sunday morning, but none of them were injured.

“Some of the people working here got quite a scare but we were all very lucky that there were no cars under the beam. It could have been much worse,” said Pierre Dacosta, who was working in the tunnel’s walls at the time of the accident. “You stay in shock a bit after it happened but it’s part of the job.”

Larose said that Transport Quebec conducts regular inspections on all highway infrastructure, but wouldn't say when the last inspection had been carried out.

Approximately 100,000 cars pass through the Ville Marie tunnel each weekday, said Larose.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Concrete+structure+collapses+Ville+Marie+tunnel/5186168/story.html#ixzz1TjMXvWot




Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Concrete+structure+collapses+Ville+Marie+tunnel/5186168/story.html#ixzz1TjMPGEvW

House Again Seeks Votes, After Failing to Pass Debt Plan

New York Times
WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders, who had abruptly put off a vote on their proposal to raise the debt ceiling and cut government spending, called their rank and file back into another closed-door session on Friday to resume their overnight search for the last few votes they need.

President Obama was expected to comment on the deepening impasse shortly, and there was no clear sign what the next step would be. Among the several possibilities were changes to the House bill, an attempt by Senate Democrats to leapfrog forward with their own plan, or a new attempt to reach a compromise on the part of all the major players.

In an effort to break the logjam, Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, called on Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, to meet with him on Friday to try to resolve to the stalemate, given the failure of House Republicans to advance their own budget proposal.

“My door is open,” Mr. Reid said as the Senate convened. “I will listen to any idea to get this done in a way that prevents a default and a dangerous downgrade to America’s credit rating. Time is short, and too much is at stake, to waste even one more minute.

“The last train is leaving the station,” he said. “This is our last chance to avert default.”

Mr. McConnell, who had earlier been working with Mr. Reid on a fallback plan, abandoned that attempt and has been supporting the effort by the House speaker, John A. Boehner, to push through a proposal that would raise the debt limit in two stages — an approach flatly rejected by Senate Democrats and the White House. Mr. McConnell also had been talking with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. but broke the conversation off while the Boehner plan was pending.

Mr. McConnell, too, came to the Senate floor and offered little indication that he was ready to deal, accusing Democrats of devoting recent days to undermining the House plan. “Our Democratic friends in the Senate have offered no solutions to the crisis that can pass either chamber,” he said.

Mr. Reid said he would be moving within hours to force votes on his own plan to cut spending by about $2.5 trillion over 10 years and raise the debt limit through 2012, a move that would lead to a crucial showdown vote over the weekend. He said he would be making changes to his measure to attract more support but made clear that he considered the Senate plan the final effort to avert a default next week.

“There will be no time left to vote on another bill or consider another option here in the Senate,” he said. “None.”

Mr. Reid said he had also had a “sobering” conversation on Friday with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner about the consequences of a default.

“It is really precarious for our country,” he said. Just minutes from a roll-call vote on the plan pushed by Mr. Boehner, Republicans stunned the House on Thursday by interrupting the debate and turning to routine matters while Mr. Boehner and his lieutenants tried to pressure reluctant conservatives into backing their plan. The House then went into a recess and shortly before 11 p.m., the leadership announced that no vote would be held.

The surprise postponement threw the endgame of the debt limit clash into confusion and raised concerns among some on Capitol Hill that the government was lurching toward a default. The White House and Senate Democratic leaders had been waiting for the House to act before making their next move with an eye on the Tuesday deadline set by the Treasury Department for raising the debt ceiling or facing the possibility that the government would not be able to meet all its financial obligations.

Republicans had expressed confidence throughout Thursday that they would round up enough recalcitrant conservatives to pass their plan, but they obviously miscalculated.

Officials and aides said opponents had multiple misgivings about the measure, which Senate Democrats had already said they would reject as soon as it reached the Senate desk. The legislation would provide a $900 billion increase in the federal debt limit in exchange for slightly more than that in spending cuts. A second increase of $1.6 trillion in 2012 would be tied to the ability of a new special committee to produce a proposal to save an additional $1.8 trillion.

Failure to pass the measure would represent a significant defeat for Mr. Boehner, the first-year speaker who has invested significant political capital in trying to get his fractious majority behind the legislation, which had the strong support of the entire leadership team. It could also bolster Senate Democrats in their push to raise the debt ceiling by enough to take the Treasury Department through 2012.

Growth plan in off-island poses threat to St. Lazare's identity: mayor

Plans to limit residential sprawl in the greater Montreal area over the next two decades could threaten St. Lazare's city-within-a-forest identity, according to Pierre Kary, the town's mayor.

"Twenty years is a blink of an eye in terms of residential development," Kary said. "As mayor, it is my role to ensure that residents benefit from change rather than be negatively impacted.

"I cannot just allow development in St. Lazare to go unmanaged, or managed from Montreal or by developers" he added. "We want development, but we want development that is right for St. Lazare."

In May, the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal, the umbrella planning organization for Montreal Island and its suburbs, presented a proposal - called the Plan métropolitain d'amenagement et de dévélopment (PMAD) - that would slow the march of housing subdivisions off the island.

St. Lazare, which has a population of just under 20,000, is part of the Montreal Metropolitan Community, which covers 82 municipalities with a total population of 3.7 million.

"Under the PMAD's plan for sustainable development, objectives are set out to better receive 530,000 people and 320,000 new homes within the MMC in the next 20 years," Kary said.

He said that in order to deal with that increase, minimum density levels are being set for each region.

For the region of Vaudreuil-Soulanges, which includes St. Lazare, the average density for new residential developments will be 16 housing units per hectare for 2011-2016; 18 housing units per hectare for 2017-2021; 20 housing units per hectare for 2022-2026 and 22 housing units per hectare for 2026-2031.

"This contrasts greatly with the housing density within our perimeter of about 3.4 housing units per hectare," Kary said.

Kary noted that the average density is measured over the whole MRC, which is comprised of 23 off-island communities, not just in St. Lazare.

However, he added, St. Lazare is one of the municipalities with the most available land for residential development with much of the 518 hectares available in 2006 still available for residential development.

"We are among those with the most land available," he said.

"With the PMAD, we become a municipality even more attractive for residential development ... and moreover for development at a much higher density than is typical for our community."

Kary said a jump from 3.4 residential units to 16 units per hectare would be "dramatic for St. Lazare," which has equestrian areas that are at a density of about one unit per hectare.

"We have an identity, a brand," he said. "Our brand is that of singlefamily homes on large lots with plenty of trees favourable to our equestrian community - a city within a forest.

"The PMAD, if not properly integrated into a new urban plan, can be a threat to our identity."

The mayor said planning is needed as 16 to 22 housing units per hectare is not possible in sectors that don't have the required infrastructures.

"Many undeveloped sectors will have to be on septic systems, like most of our territory," he said, noting that the town also has a number of wetlands that need to be protected since they are important for the water supply in the town, which is entirely dependent on underground wells.

Kary acknowledged, however, that change is coming, and even though St. Lazare is now the most youthful town in Quebec, with 30 per cent of its population under 30 years old, it must prepare for an increase in an elderly population over the next two decades.

"We are facing a new reality," he said.

"Although it is anticipated that the demographics are such that there will be an increase of 35-to 54-year-olds, the real demographic change will be the increase of 65-to 84-year-olds.

"Housing units for this demographic is scarce in St. Lazare," he said.

"With the required densification and change in demographics, we will have to find a way to protect our citywithin-a-forest brand while increasing the housing density and offering a diversity of housing options, including catering to the older demographic.

"This requires planning ... and is more than just protecting our brand or identity," said Kary, adding that all of the municipalities in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges MRC "will have to work closely to develop a regional plan for residential development."

A public consultation meeting for the southern part of the Montreal Metropolitan Community, which includes the Vaudreuil-Soulanges MRC, will take place Oct. 19 at the Exporail Le Musée férroviaire canadien, 110 St. Pierre St. in St. Constant.
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