Anglophones frustrated with lack of English on borough websites

The Quebec Community Groups Network, representing Quebec's English-speaking communities, says it's time the websites for Montreal's boroughs be translated into English.

Currently, only five of Montreal's 19 boroughs have an English website.

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Two others, Verdun and le Bizard, have only partially translated their websites.

QCGN's Sylvia Martin-Laforge says that's not good enough.

"It's about services, not about linguistic tensions," she said.

The issue is also a sore point for Verdun city councillorSterling Downey.

"We've asked many times why it hasn't been updated, why information hasn't been put on there and we keep getting excuses," Downey said.

"This isn't about English versus French, this is not a language issue. What it is, it's about access to information."

Verdun residentIfeHolnesssaid it's hard to know what's happening in the borough because of the language gap.

"We lose out and we've lived here for years and we don't know what's going on in our own borough," she said.

Verdun's mayor, Jean-Franois Parenteau, is promising an English version of the website soon.

Parenteau said Verdun is waiting for the central city to update its website before they update theirs.

He said they've decided to keep the current English site up to provide a minimum of information to the English-speaking community.