Montreal elected officials are calling for two new sampling stations in the east end of Montreal and asking the provincial government to create a public register of environmental information, as stipulated by law.
City councilors are concerned about the arrival of new industrial projects in what they call Montreal’s “black lung”, an area where air pollution is associated with many health problems, according to them.
Julien Hénault-Ratelle and Alba Zúñiga Ramos, two councilors of the opposition party Ensemble Montréal, ask the Plante administration to demand the establishment of new air quality sampling stations in the Assumption sectors -Sud-Longue-Pointe and in the south of Tétreaultville.
According to them, the sampling station currently used is too far from the industries to have a real portrait of the air quality in the residential neighborhoods in the east of the city.
“The only sampling station in the borough is at the western end of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, so when we take into consideration the prevailing air currents in the area, unfortunately, the data from the station shows us the quality of the air which is located in the Ville-Marie borough and not in the sector where heavy industries are present”, explained Julien Hénault-Ratelle, referring to the many factories which emit pollutants in the east of the metropolis.
Health implications and the “perfect storm”
Adding the considerable increase in trucking traffic and the passage of trains, road congestion due to the repair of the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel and that of Highway 25, the closure of several ramps at the Souligny interchange and the he arrival of other large-scale projects, such as the Ray-Mont Logistiques container transshipment platform, “we are going to find ourselves faced with a perfect storm which will have a negative impact on the air quality of the sector”, said fear Julien Hénault-Ratelle.
The councilor for Tétreaultville recalled that the citizens of the east have historically suffered the most from the harmful effects of air pollution in Montreal.
Life expectancy in neighborhoods east of Montreal is nine years lower than in parts of the west island, according to data released by the CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île -de-Montréal in 2016. Julien Hénault-Ratelle believes that “air quality is one of the factors” that explain “this major gap”.
Ensemble Montréal is also asking the Plante administration to collaborate with the Direction régionale de santé publique to conduct a health impact assessment of the development of the east end of the city as a whole.
“This would make it possible to estimate the repercussions of the development of a sector as a whole by ensuring that several indicators such as air pollution, noise, heat islands and access to green spaces are measured”, can we read in a press release from the opposition party.
A long-awaited environmental register
The elected representatives of the opposition are also asking the Plante administration to exert pressure on the Quebec government so that it finally puts in place the public registry provided for in the Environment Quality Act, as soon as This year.
The Environment Quality Act has been in force since 2018. Article 118.5 of this law stipulates that the Ministry of the Environment must maintain a public register containing a range of information on industrial projects and activities.
For example, the register must contain the description and source of the contaminants caused by a project, the type of discharge into the environment, or even the conditions that a promoter must respect, the prohibitions and the specific standards applicable to the realization of the activity.
Five years after the entry into force of the law, the register still does not exist.
“If we want the east to stop being recognized as the “black lung” of Montreal, we must have the ambition to turn the tide to ensure Montrealers sustainable development that takes public health and the environment into consideration. . This public register would allow the citizens of the east to know if the industrial activities that are located near their homes are safe and respect the rules of environmental protection”, argued Councilor Alba Zúñiga Ramos.
Two weeks ago, the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, told The Canadian Press that he had asked his department’s teams to “present a schedule for the rapid implementation of this register which, remember, will enable better dissemination of information to the public”.