Proud to have sponsored a resolution calling on Tour de l’Île to become charitable

The annual Tour de l'Île de Montréal has been a thorn in my side for decades. I am not a cyclist and I resent the fact that this event paralyzes the city one Sunday each year, as well as eating up the equivalent of $500,000 in Agglomeration funds while not raising a penny for charity.

Activist Murray Levine first connected with me on this issue over 30 years ago and I wrote about it in my newspaper column at the time.

Organizers from Velo Québec continue to march to the beat of their own drum and with each City of Montreal administration not taking a stand on the issue they face little incentive to change. Now we have a Montreal Mayor in Valerie Plante who cycles to work.

If the Tour would encourage its riders to raise funds for their favorite charity, I might find this inconvenience a bit more bearable.

Mikemurray — **With Murray Levine after the vote at City Council.**

It was with this in mind that I moved the following resolution at our December 10 Council meeting, which passed with a majority:

MOTION TO ESSENTIALLY INCREASE PHILANTHROPY IN QUEBEC

WHEREAS the 30,000+ participants of New York’s TD 5 Boro Cycle are invited to raise

funds for charities and this year (and previous ones) raised $1 million;

WHEREAS the participants of multitudes of mass participation running, cycling, triathlon

and other mass participation self propelled athletic events around the world have optional

charitable fundraising components;

WHEREAS the participants of running events alone in the US raise over $1 billion per

year for charities;

WHEREAS the participants of the Marathon de Montreal are INVITED to raise funds and

may still be paying Montreal so that they may stage their event;

WHEREAS charities staging athletic events that raise funds at Parc Jean Drapeau

actually pay for the privilege;

WHEREAS Le Tour de L’Ile de Montreal receives $500,000 in funding and in kind support

from the Agglomeration;

WHEREAS the Tour de L’Ile de Montreal is a major inconvenience to pedestrians and

motorists;

WHEREAS emergency vehicles are delayed due to the event;

Whereas there is no noticeable increase in tourism due to the event;

WHEREAS Dorval, Kirkland and Hampstead will not consider allowing Le Tour in unless

the participants are invited to raise funds for charities;

WHEREAS Cote St Luc, DDO and Laval have banned the event altogether;

WHEREAS a significant number of the participants come from Laval, the South Shore

etc. whose cities contribute no funds and suffer no inconvenience;

It was MOVED BY myself SECONDED BY COUNCILLOR Ruth Kovac

AND RESOLVED:

“THAT the Côte Saint-Luc City Council call upon the Agglomeration not to support

Velo Quebec with funding and free in kind support, until such time as all of the participants of Velo Quebec events on the Island of Montreal, are INVITED by to raise funds for charities via their participation in the events.”

18 COMMENTS

Steve Kushneryk December 28, 2018 At 7:51 am

Check out to see how much the organizers are getting paid. They will say it is for their hard work. I say cash cow for them. The volunteers are not paid — suckers. And how much does this cost the city in police, barriers, city workers, etc… How much lost business from traffic disruption.
Frances Katz December 28, 2018 At 8:05 am

Since Quebeers are found to be the least charitable of Canadians, The Tour de L’ile is an excellent opportunity to teach the younger generation enjoyable ways of helping others.
Christine Marlow December 28, 2018 At 8:48 am

Excellent idea!
Erwin Neumark December 28, 2018 At 9:26 am

About time!
Anirudh Tyagi December 28, 2018 At 10:10 am

Every body that contributes into the Agglomeration funds must have a say on how they are spent, and to stop as wastage of those funds.
I support Mike Cohen and his efforts to stop the bleeding of funds to a cause that is not beneficial to the community as a whole and adds chaos to the traffic in Montreal.
John H Bisscheroux December 28, 2018 At 10:45 am

Any surplus over cost and retention of start-up costs should go to charity.
I do not support the argument of “inconvenience” and the such for a single day of the event a it is the price to pay for living in a city designed for acceptance of many events, cultural as well as sports etc
Andy Motter December 28, 2018 At 11:33 am

Hold the event solely in Valerie’s neighborhood.
Roger Jones, PEng,, FEC December 28, 2018 At 1:11 pm

I support Mike Cohen’s plan.
We used to live in Cote St. Luc (Meadows Condominium) until 1999 when we moved to the Toronto area (Thornhill.) I think I knew Mike back then… he does look familiar! Very best, anyway!
Roger Jones, PEng, FEC.
Len Miller December 28, 2018 At 1:55 pm

I totally agree with Mike. No legitimate reason not to raise funds during this GREAT MONTREAL EVENT,
Good luck
Mike and Cohen December 28, 2018 At 6:03 pm

What a pleasure to hear from my old neighbour Roger. Yes Roger you were even my property manager!
Bernd Graffunder December 28, 2018 At 6:43 pm

I very much support this suggestion. I have been contributing for years a Marathon and also Cyclethon in Vancouver, which is for cancer research. Montreal should show similsr concerns.
Lorrsine Beaton December 29, 2018 At 12:46 pm

I believe that if we continue to have the Tour de l’Isle in Montreal at a cost to taxpayers without any return, we should require participants to raise money for charity in the same way as other cities like New York have done.
Montrealer December 30, 2018 At 9:20 am

$500000 is a small change in Montreal’s wasteful budget. They are sitting on the our money and don’t know what to do with it, except increasing the bureaucracy and fund stupid projects. They invested $7millions in the “improvement” of trails in Bois-de-Liesse park, that nobody asked and that has no effect on anything.
Murray Levine January 1, 2019 At 9:40 am

To help in the Island wide effort to have Velo Quebec add an optional fundraising component to their events please encourage everyone to send an email to PAFoundation@gmail.com
and read the auto reply
Barbara Mariano January 5, 2019 At 2:56 pm

This is atrocious that this bicycle tour around our city does not raise funds for charity…the homeless for example, Sure hope that Plante & Legault pay attention to this & change their attitudes. We elected you people to represent us not YOURSELVES & do what the hell you want to do. LISTEN TO YOUR VOTERS! Stop wasting our money. This Tour de l’Ile de Montreal is a great opportunity to raise money for charities….I challenge you.
Mitchell January 14, 2019 At 1:07 pm

You should consider moving to Laval, they are very bike unfriendly and you would fit in great there. You a horrible man and hopefully the people that voted for you will be voting you out next time around.
AD January 17, 2019 At 10:14 am

What? So now are we going to not support any single event unless it raises funds for charities? Then the amount of events will certainly decrease!
Just because you choose not to bike it doesn’t mean that you should be all up in arms for a family event that is enjoyed by many Montrealers. And I do hope you’re not as entitled in real life as you sound here because you’re inconvenienced once per year. And no, emergency vehicles are not delayed as with every events, vehicle access is planned.
Unless you ask to ban every single even I am not sure why you’re singling out velo-Quebec.
Murray January 25, 2019 At 3:24 pm

AD,
Read the motion point by point. If you then disagree with the points send me an email at PAFOUNDATION@gmail.com
Murray Levine