Bouchard's $8B Bonaventure dream

The Montreal harbour corporation wants to make big changes to the city, saying it is time to move the Bonaventure Expressway and develop new green space and businesses.

Although the plans would cost billions of dollars, the corporation said it would make up for past errors.

Corporation management said the Bonaventure Expressway blocks Montrealers from the river, and they want to rebuild the expressway.

They also want to build new parks along the water and new housing and commercial developments too.

The plans would cost about $8 billion, which prompted Mayor Gérald Tremblay to ask: "How are we going to finance all these projects?"

But the mayor is a supporter of the plan, saying the private and public sectors should work together.

Meanwhile, the corporation's co-chair Lucien Bouchard, said the plans will give Montreal a chance to soar.

"It's a huge problem, but at the same time if we deal correctly with it we can transform it into a beautiful dream, and a dream that will be achieved, realized," he said.

Bouchard said the dreams are already based on exhaustive planning, but the corporation will now go back to work on official feasibility studies.