Montreal announces $88M for greenbelt around contentious container yard in east end
Municipal council to vote Monday on zoning changes that would greenlight expansion
The City of Montreal announced it's investing $88 million into a greenbelt meant to insulate some Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough residents from the impacts of the likely, and controversial, expansion of a container yard.
The city's plan includes planting trees, adding green space and improving streets around the Ray-Mont Logistics (RML) site to manage traffic flow.
The city has acquired some lands for the greenbelt, bordering the grid formed by Viau, Hochelaga, Dickson and Notre Dame East streets, including the Boisé Steinberg park and parts of CN's land, said city councillor Alia Hassan-Cournol during a news conference Monday morning.
"We've protected also the Boisé Vimont and we want to continue acquiring if we could some other spaces," she said.
Hassan-Cournol says she wants to get all affected residents involved in the greenbelt which is currently in its planning phase.
"What we're announcing today is really: we're not abandoning the citizens here," she said.
The city's executive committee approved regulatory changes to its zoning laws last week, so that RML can go ahead with its expansion.
The project, located on the north side of Notre-Dame Street East, aims to transform the site into a transportation hub where containers and bulk goods will be received, stored and transferred via rail and truck for the nearby Port of Montreal.
The city had previously contested the project in two lawsuits — at the Quebec Superior Court in 2018 and at the Court of Appeal in 2021. It lost in both cases.
The executive committee member responsible for economic development, Luc Rabouin, said those losses have forced the city's hand. Now, it can only act in the hope of improving the quality of life for residents and increase green spaces where it can, he said.
"We fought against the project twice in court and the City of Montreal lost. So now what we have to do is to use all the levers, all the powers that we have to improve the neighbourhood," said Rabouin.
The executive committee's move came just under a month after a report by Montreal's public consultation commission suggested the city postpone approving regulatory amendments and reassess the project plan, highlighting its impact on neighbouring residential sectors.
Longtime Hochelaga-Maisonneuve resident Cassandre Charbonneau-Jobin has been fighting the project for five years as a member of the local advocacy group Mobilisation 6600 Parc-Nature MHM, which has organized protests and accused RML of destroying two wooded areas while subjecting residents to daily noise.
"There's very few green spaces in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. We need to protect everything that's there," she said in an interview. "Even though it's industrial land, it doesn't matter. Trees are growing back and it's beautiful and it's good for both physical and psychological health."
She believes the city could still do more by rejecting regulatory changes at Monday's municipal council meeting and return to the negotiation table with RML.
Whether the city gets sued or not, she says Montrealers will be paying either way.
A spokesperson for Rabouin says the $88 million announced today was already set aside in the city's latest budget.
Charbonneau-Jobin and her fellow advocates will be protesting at City Hall while the municipal council continues to meet Monday. They're asking that the city acquires all of CN's land in the affected area "to build a real urban forest there."
"We're going to fight to preserve everything that can be saved," she said.
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With files from Steve Rukavina