Non-profit organizes Montreal's 375th anniversary

Montreal Mayor Grald Tremblay announced the creation of a non-profit organization that will be organizing the festivities for the city's 375th anniversary.

Tremblay said the city has already asked the federal and provincial governments to get involved in the funding, as they had done with the city's 350^th anniversary and Quebec City's 400^th.

The 375^th anniversary will take place in 2017.

The group organizing the festivities will be led by Jacques Parisien, chief operating officer at Astral Media, and Gilbert Rozon, founder of Just for Laughs, will oversee the overall schedule.

Michel Bissonnet, member of the executive committee for the 375^th anniversary, along with Guy Hbert, the city's general director and Rachel Laperrire, director of institutional affairs services will also be taking part in the events' planning.

The team's members, who will work as volunteers, will have to abide by the rules laid out for elected members and employees of the city.

An action plan should be introduced in December and the whole project should be laid out in early 2013.

"I can tell you that we invested $1-million in [the bureau of the 375^th anniversary] so we're definitely going to invest some money once we have the recommendations from the board of directors."

Montreal is already slated to host the World Police and Fire Games that year. City officials expect at least 50,000 people to flock to Montreal for this event alone. Official attendance estimates for the anniversary itself are expected to be available once the team meets in October.