Organizations are calling for a public inquiry into the circumstances that led to the lack of social housing in the Square Children’s real estate megaproject, which is under construction on the site of the former Montreal Children’s Hospital. The developer points the finger at the City for this fiasco.
At the heart of the questions is a letter of commitment signed by the developer and the City on June 7, 2017 — under the administration of Denis Coderre —, which offered a way out in the event that the expected affordable housing could not be take place in Tower 6 of Square Children’s, in downtown Montreal.
This building, initially 20 floors, was to include 174 social and community housing units, the construction of which would have been financed by the City. Except that the agreement signed by the developer Sarto Blouin on behalf of the real estate company High-Rise Montreal (HRM) provided from the outset for the remission of a penalty of $6.235 million to the City if the latter was not unable to find the funds to carry out this social housing project.
“I signed that agreement with a knife to my throat and a gun on the temple. They told me [à la Ville] : whatever the reason, if we don’t have our money, we want to be able to get the plug on this social housing project, said Mr. Blouin in an interview with To have to. The city, he says, did not know at the time if it would get the necessary grants from other levels of government to complete the project.
In the months following the signing of the agreement, discussions would have stalled between the City and HRM concerning the design of this tower and the resulting invoice. The municipal administration would have proposed 34 million for the realization of the project, for which HRM rather wished to receive 40 million dollars, revealed Mr. Blouin in an interview. The businessman says he then, faced with the impasse in this file, proposed to build 120 social housing units on another lot in the city center, then 200 in Lachine, to replace the project planned in Tower 6, in vain. .
“The City has never been able to negotiate in good faith,” says Mr. Blouin, who is now up against the City’s refusal to accept the financial compensation provided for in the 2017 agreement so that he can carry out the project of his choice in Tower 6.
A public inquiry requested
The June 2017 agreement between the City and HRM was also at the heart of the questions of several participants in the proceedings underway at the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM). The organization was mandated to look into the City’s intentions to increase the permitted height for Tower 6 from 20 to a maximum of 4 storeys following unsuccessful attempts to include social housing.
The City has also confirmed before the OCPM that it was the “only case of non-completion of a turnkey project” of social housing, out of 145 projects of the kind carried out “according to the key formula in hand” provided for in the City’s former inclusion strategy, launched in 2005 and then replaced last year by the By-law for a mixed metropolis.
“This statement confirms the particularly problematic nature of this project and raises many questions, which remain unanswered for the moment,” raises the group of organizations Habiter Ville-Marie in its brief presented Tuesday evening before the OCPM. He is thus calling for the holding of a “public inquiry” which would “shed light on the shortcomings or irregularities in the administrative processing and the decision-making process that led to the authorization of the project on the site of the former Montreal Children’s Hospital “.
“It is abnormal that the promoter responsible for the social housing project was authorized to have the option of paying financial compensation” in this controversial agreement, explains to the To have to the coordinator of the Ville-Marie Housing Committee and co-author of the report, Éric Michaud.
It is not only community groups who want a public inquiry into this affair: it is also the case of the president of the Devimco Group, Serge Goulet, who manages four of the six towers of the Square Children’s project.
“If people want to shed light because they think there are gray areas, me, that will make me happy”, dropped the promoter when questioned by The duty on the sidelines of a media event on Tuesday. Mr. Goulet stressed that the responsibility for building social housing on this site fell to HRM, which he claims to have encouraged to sign an agreement with the City in this regard five years ago.
“There should have been social housing there. There is someone who has not minded his business. And if the public inquiry proves it, I’m going to be very happy, because the rest of us have done our job “, launched the promoter.
“There is no need for a public inquiry, it was done according to the standards of the time,” replies Sarto Blouin, who asks the City to respect the agreement it signed with him there. almost five years old. “I’m hopeful that eventually I’ll be able to make a 20-story tower out of something else [que du logement social]. »
The mistakes of the past
At the City, due to the ongoing legal proceedings, caution is required in the communications granted publicly on this file. HRM claims to be the victim of a “disguised expropriation” by the City of the site planned for Tower 6. In writing, the head of housing on the executive committee, Benoit Dorais, assured that since the signing of the controversial agreement to June 2017, “the regulations have completely evolved” at the City, which would ensure that “the conditions under which this project evolved could no longer be reproduced”.
With Jeanne Corriveau