Last-minute deal to save Montreal bocce club falls through, but seniors say 'we’re not giving up'

Seniors in Montreal’s Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough say they’re disappointed after a last-minute offer to save their bocce club fell through, leaving the future of the centre up in the air.

The borough has been paying the rent for the Acadie Bocce Club for more than two decades, however, borough Mayor Emilie Thuillier said the $211,000 price tag per year for the lease is too steep.

On Monday, seniors with the bocce club protested in front of Montreal City Hall to try to save the club, calling for Mayor Valerie Plante’s administration to step in to help.

At a council meeting that afternoon, the borough proposed a solution, indicating it was willing to pay $60,000 of the approximately $211,000 annual rent on the bocce centre for the next five years, on the condition that the neighbouring boroughs of Saint-Laurent and Montreal-North, both run by opposition party Ensemble Montréal, would put up equal amounts.

The remaining $30,000 would need to come from the seniors, who offered months ago to raise that amount toward the rent but were turned down by the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough.

Plante supported the proposal, urging the other boroughs to accept the deal adding, "the offer is on the table, the ball is now in your court."

On Tuesday, the borough mayors of Montreal North and Ahuntsic-Cartierville rejected that proposal.

"We're not going to catch this ball," he said. "We're not going to let the local citizens of Ahuntsic-Cartierville, seniors who have suffered much through the whole saga of COVID and now this saga, have the opportunity now to be used as hostages," said Saint-Laurent Borough Mayor Alan DeSousa.

The mayor of Montreal North, Christine Black, said the offer doesn’t make sense and would "open a Pandora’s box" because it’s common practice in Montreal for people to use services in other boroughs, but each borough is responsible for its own facilities.

The bocce club’s spokesperson, Cecilia Fazioli, said it’s sad to see the borough politicking with their club.

"We were all excited, but later on we realized this is a political game that they're having, which is very sad," she said.

Fazioli would like to see the borough return to the drawing board to come up with a way to continue funding the club.

Some 450 people use the club with only about half of them playing the popular Italian game that's a bit of a combination between bowling and curling.

The members say playing bocce helps keep them active, and the social aspect helps to curb loneliness and isolation.

Fazioli said she hopes other seniors in the city are paying attention to their cause.

"You know it could happen to all of us, all the seniors in Montreal," she said.

On Tuesday evening, city councillors debated a motion that called on the City of Montreal to cover the rental costs for the Acadie Bocce Club "for the practice of bocce ball 365 days a year."

In the end, the motion was voted down by the administration.

Still, Fazioli says the club’s members won’t back down.

"We’re not giving up because it's a matter of treating us like human beings," she said.