Incidentally the aqueduct is being broadened and a series of boulevards are being constructed on its banks. As this enterprise was an outcome of the city planning movement, which has favorably marked the last few years of civic improvement, it may be recorded.
On the 26th May, 1913, the City Council adopted the following report of the Board of Commissioners:—
1. That the principle of establishing boulevards along the canal of the Aqueduct, according to the plans prepared by the City Engineers, be adopted by Council, a duplicate of these plans to be deposited with the City Clerk.
2. That the offers of ceding the land gratuitously for these boulevards be accepted on the following conditions:—
(a) The work of planing and levelling the boulevards will be carried on as the work on the canal progresses, the City shall not be bound to open the proposed boulevards to traffic until the work on the canal is completed.
(b) The City shall, if possible, compel the contractors throwing up earth along the banks of the canal, to give the streets connecting with the boulevards a grade of not more than 6% from the line dividing the boulevards from the adjoining properties. Proprietors adjoining the boulevards shall have the exclusive privilege of having the material from the excavations deposited on their land in the way they may determine, provided, however, such material is not needed by the City.
That all properties which will not have been ceded on the above mentioned conditions within a delay of three months from the 1st of June, 1913, be expropriated according to the terms of the law 3 Geo. V., Chap. 54, Section 20, and that the cost of said expropriation be borne exclusively by the proprietors of land bordering the proposed boulevards, according to a roll made and prepared according to the prescriptions of Art. 450 of the Charter of the City of Montreal.
That in case of there being any doubt of the power of the City to give effect to the above mentioned recommendation, the Legislation Committee and the City Attorneys be requested to obtain from the Legislature any legislation necessary for the accomplishment of this undertaking.
That the City obtain from the Legislature:
1. Exemption from all taxes whether municipal, school, general or special which might be imposed upon the land forming part of the boulevards or of the Aqueduct and situated in other municipalities, without prejudice, however, to the rights of the Town of Verdun, in virtue of the Statute 1 Geo. V., 2nd Session, Chap. 60, Section 2, concerning the commutation of taxes on immovables owned by the City of Montreal in the Town of Verdun.