Ray-Mont Logistiques carried out work on its site in the east of Montreal without having obtained all the necessary authorizations. The Quebec Ministry of the Environment has just issued a “notice of non-compliance” to the proponent, who will have to conduct a study before obtaining the green light for his industrial container transshipment project, located at the limits of a residential area.
In a press release, the Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change (MELCC) announced Tuesday morning that “Ray-Mont Logistiques must cease work to begin the implementation of its intermodal logistics platform in Montreal and obtain an environmental permit”.
According to what the MELCC found during a recent inspection on the site, the promoter failed to request an “authorization” before starting a crucial phase of its project, namely the “container storage”. The ministry therefore issued a “notice of non-compliance” to the company.
Sound environment
Before being able to resume work on its project contested by the citizens of the sector, Ray-Mont Logistiques will have to carry out “a modeling study of the sound environment more representative of the critical conditions which could be observed than that which has already been provided on a preliminary basis on February 11, 2022 “, specifies the press release from the MELCC. The proponent must also propose “appropriate mitigation measures”.
It must be said that the project would be located less than 100 meters from a residential area in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district, in the east of Montreal. This is where the company intends to build an intermodal platform (which would make it possible to transfer containers from trucks to railcars) which would be in operation every day, 24 hours a day. The platform would also include the stacking of a maximum of than 10,000 containers on the site, with a view to their export by ship, and a thousand truck passages every day.
Ray-Mont Logistiques has already received authorization from the Legault government. The company was therefore able to carry out paving work on the site, where residents of the sector and elected officials wanted to establish a “nature park”, which would be linked to a wooded area located further north. It can also build the railroads needed for the project and use contaminated soil to build a “screen wall” located on the side of the residential sector.
However, the company has not yet requested or obtained the necessary authorization to build the “intermodal platform”. The construction of this platform could be subject to “prior authorization” under the Environment Quality Act (EQA).
Minister Benoit Charette could therefore, at that time, subject the project to the environmental assessment procedure provided for in the legislation. To do so, the Minister must determine that the environmental issues that the project may raise are major and that the public concerns justify it. No decision has been made on this yet.
Opposition
Elected officials, merchants and citizens of the sector recently urged the Legault government to act in this file. “This is not the kind of development we want in our neighborhood,” argued the federal deputy for Hochelaga, Soraya Martinez Ferrada, underlining the Trudeau government’s opposition to the Ray-Mont Logistiques project.
“The Quebec government is isolated. All that’s missing is the Government of Quebec at the table,” added the supportive MP for Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Alexandre Leduc, deploring “the nuisance” that the project would impose on the neighborhood.
For the president of the Quebec Association of Physicians for the Environment, Claudel Pétrin-Desrosiers, Ray-Mont Logistiques is an incoherent project in the context of the fight against the impacts of the climate crisis. What is more, the opposition of the citizens of the district risks causing “psychosocial impacts” if the project goes ahead. “I see no justification for this project to see the light of day. »
More details will follow.