At a meeting in April with Normand Rinfret, Associate Director General of the MUHC, representatives of the CIQ and the MUHC agreed to set up three committees to put forward courses of action on the issues of concern expressed in the 2004 partnership agreement. The CIQ hopes that it can come to an agreement with the MUHC to specify their respective commitments regarding economic development, employability and integration of the project into the urban fabric.

With support from Making Megaprojects Work for Communities Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) university researchers, under the coordination of Jason Prince, we are confident that the MUHC and the CIQ will be able to put forward common objectives within a partnership agreement, in which each party demonstrates that collaboration makes it possible to meet the expectations and needs of each. But there is more. Within each of these three committees, good relationships must be developed to speed up the benefits of the employment, labour, construction and sustainable development plans. To date, each of these working committees has opened the discussion of principles and common orientations, so as to propose a working plan that corresponds to the needs of each partner. These working plans will enable the definition of common objectives, the means to reach them, a timetable and a definition of the roles and responsibilities of each.

For example, the economic development committee, which I have the pleasure of coordinating, will examine the following issues: the participation of local businesses in construction of the MUHC, welcoming of businesses and projects related to the MUHC research centre, establishment of related services around the site, the development of a complementary retail offer to local businesses in the future shopping mall, and the purchasing policy for goods and services of $100,000 and less.

On November 24, we will mark the fifth anniversary of the signing of our partnership agreement with the MUHC. This agreement proposed communication and participation mechanisms between the partners, in order to ensure the harmonious integration of the MUHC within the receiving community in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Saint-Henri and Westmount. The members of the CIQ will work together to optimize the positive impact of the construction of the MUHC and rest assured that the CDEC will be in the front row.

Claude Lauzon