Michèle Flannery

Elected as borough councillor for the district of Fort-Rolland in Lachine, Michèle was born and raised in Toronto and grew up visiting Montréal and her family in Lac St-Jean until she chose to make the City her permanent home in 1998. In 2008, she chose Lachine to set up permanent roots and raise her family. Her motivation to serve her community stemmed from the improvement opportunities she observed with regards to access to information and services, public transportation, as well as a concern for safety. The proud soccer mom of two strongly advocates for access to organized sports and activities for all children. Her priorities include a quicker more efficient access to downtown, enhanced security for the most vulnerable, traffic calming measures in school zones, as well as the creation and improvement of indoor and outdoor sports facilities.

As a working mom, she understands the needs of families who choose Lachine West to raise their families. Her education and professional experience includes over 25 years in the corporate sector in communications and public relations, in addition to several start-ups, as well as running campaigns for not-for-profit organisations such as the Muscular Dystrophy Association of Canada, the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, the Heart and Stroke Foundation and Leucan.

Over the past mandate, Michèle was a member of the “Commission de culture, patrimoine et des sports” and participated in the development of the “Plan director de sports et plein air” that studied and set a clear vision for the city to find ways to promote physical activity in our urban environment. Promoting winter activities at places like Grovehill park in Lachine that she enhanced in 2019 with a new ‘winter village’ and improving access to our rivers and lakes for everyone are some examples of the direction this plan has given the city.

Her work as a member of the Public security commission and various public consultations studying issues such as, “La sécurité des déplacements entre la maison et l’école”, and, “La sécurité des piétons et des cyclistes”, has had a direct and positive impact locally such as the implementation of traffic calming measures around schools and the introduction of the “Cycliste Averti” program by Vélo Québec that teaches grade 5 and 6 students to travel by bike safely and independently.

As president of the “Comité Consultatif d’Urbanisme”, Michèle is proud of some of the gains their administration has made, specifically to further the protection of heritage homes and zones in Lachine West and the future eco-quartier of Lachine Est.

Having been closely involved with the consultations held city-wide, Michèle is proud of her administration’s introduction of a new city bylaw for domestic animals and their owners’ obligations. She is particularly happy that their local administration has lifted the restriction preventing dogs and their owners access to parks in Lachine, a restriction in place for several decades.

Michèle is looking forward to continue her work building upon the accomplishments of the past 4 years: promoting safety, improving transport, and enhancing access to our parks, outdoor space and sports facilities – to serve the citizens of Lachine and to support the coherent, strategic vision that her team has put in place.