City of Montreal ready to strike a deal to save seniors' beloved bocce club

Seniors in Montreal's Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough may have won a last-minute reprieve for their beloved bocce club, which was due to be closed for cost-cutting reasons.

The Acadie Bocce Club has been a place where members have gathered for more than two decades, but borough Mayor Emilie Thuillier said that the $211,000 price tag per year for the lease is too steep.

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.

• READ MORE: Montreal bocce club could soon close as borough mayor cites cost concerns, supporters plead for change of heart

Still, an offer by the borough mayor to provide them with space in another community centre where they could play cards and bingo - but not bocce, didn't budge them.

So seniors protested in front of Montreal City Hall Monday to try to save the club and send a message that they'd like Mayor Valerie Plante's administration to step in to help.

"Look at me, 91 years old! Because of bocce I'm strong like a bull, I could marry again," said Collula Settimo, expressing a love for the game. Indeed, the pastime is a great way to stay active and also help curb loneliness, said the president of the Quebec Bocce Federation.

"They need to get out and integrate with other people. If they're left at home in solitude it's going to be hard for them," Alberto Guerrera said.

"I don't understand why they spend a lot of money for young people and nothing for old people," club member Carmela Giovannini Paulucci said.

Later in the day, it became clear the group's plea had been heard -- and that the bocce ball is now in their court.

The Plante administration confirmed to CTV News that the borough would be 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.

In response, Ensemble Montréal told CTV it will hold a discussion on the matter after the next council meeting and expects to have an answer on Tuesday.

The opposition party also said it had planned to table a related motion tomorrow in any case, that proposes the club be permitted to retain the use of city facilities "for the practice of bocce ball 365 days a year."