Swimming near the Peel basin, a stone’s throw from the city centre? The Canada Lands Company (CLC) is considering the possibility of making a currently highly contaminated artificial body of water swimmable.
Two spokespersons for the organization raised the idea on Tuesday evening, as part of a consultation on the future of the Bridge-Bonaventure sector.
It is not Peel Basin itself that would become swimmable, but rather its neighbor, Wellington Basin. It is much smaller since its partial filling in the 1960s, but could be enlarged.
“We are looking at what we can do to dig out part of the Wellington basin to possibly even – perhaps – allow swimming. We are looking at how we can do everything around the Peel basin with Parks Canada to be able to revitalize this sector,” said Pierre-Marc Mongeau, vice-president of the SIC, before the Office de consultation publique de Montreal (OCPM).
The Peel and Wellington basins are highly contaminated. They were dug in the 19the century, when the Lachine Canal was the heart of Canada’s industrialization and environmental standards were non-existent.
“The proposal to make the Wellington basin swimmable is in line with our objective and we will analyze it in light of the issues of safety, water quality and current,” said Catherine Cadotte, of Mayor Valérie’s office. Plant. “We encourage all players in the community to express their views during public consultations, and it is essential to let this process do its work. We will decide in the light of the report and we will duly analyze each proposal. »
” Cry of the heart ”
The investments necessary for such a project must, however, be recovered elsewhere, insisted the representatives of the SIC, launching a “cry from the heart” to the City of Montreal so that it authorizes more density in the sector.
Like private developers, the federal corporation would like Montreal to allow the construction of more than 7,600 homes in Bridge-Bonaventure and to relax its vision.
“You have to have that flexibility,” said Christopher Sweetnam Holmes, property manager for CLC. “The challenge is when people think that adding heights is just to help people make more money. […] Heights, well made, well structured, well controlled in their quality can be an addition to a neighborhood. It makes it possible to create larger public spaces, it makes it possible to finance other common benefits such as social housing, affordable housing. »
“What is unfortunately proposed in the City’s master plan for the district, which is too restrictive, can “limit[r] the creativity of the designers,” added MM. Mongeau and Sweetnam Holmes.
The SIC also argued that the P&H Milling silos, recently identified as of heritage interest by the City of Montreal, should not be kept “like a ruin of the past”. “The P&H silo is younger than me! “, underlined Mr. Mongeau.
Mr. Mongeau also indicated that four years after the selection of the Devimco group to rehabilitate Silo noh 5 and find a new vocation for it, the company was still in the “due diligence” phase.