The Quebec Ministry of the Environment finally authorizes Ray-Mont Logistiques, a major grain transportation company, to start its container transshipment activities on its land in the Montreal district of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.
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Quebec made the announcement by press release, at the very end of the afternoon on Friday. Benoit Charrette, Minister of the Environment, the Fight Against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks, was not available for an interview.
Quebec’s authorization is limited, it is insisted, to the first phase of development of the site. The company is therefore authorized to undertake container trucking, handling and storage activities there, as presented last spring. Any other future development will have to be the subject of a new permission, we were told at the firm.
Imposing a curfew
Thus, the ministry will impose noise thresholds on Ray-Mont Logistique, a ban on all activity between 7:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m., a daily limit of 1,500 container movements, in addition to a storage limit of 5,000 containers.
Containers can of course be stacked there, but their height should never exceed eight containers. In addition, according to the press release, the company would undertake to respect the established “sound climate” program, and to make the “corrections necessary in the event of overruns”. Noise measurement operations are also planned “once every three months”, for at least a year.
Strong citizen opposition
The 2.5 million sq. ft. lot2an industrial wasteland occupied for a century by the Canadian Steel Foundries, was purchased by Ray-Mont Logistiques in 2016 to move its activities there.
Since then, the company has been dealing with strong opposition, depending on the period, from both the municipal administration and neighborhood citizens, opposed to the establishment of a logistics platform on the land that they had appropriated over time. years with the hope of seeing it transformed into a park.
However, to the great displeasure of neighboring citizens, never since the foundry left in 2005, the City of Montreal has changed the zoning of this vast lot on rue Notre-Dame Est, next to the Port of Montreal, and crossed by Canadian National rights-of-way.
Future platform
Called to react, Ray-Mont Logistiques indicated that this authorization constituted “a pivotal point” in the realization of its “intermodal logistics platform” project. The latter should eventually make it possible to bring together all of its Montreal activities.
“We have been rigorous in demonstrating that our activities meet the strictest standards of the ministry and the City,” said CEO Charles Raymond in a press release. We are now looking to the future and remain determined to continue the dialogue to ensure the best possible implementation of our activities in the sector.”
It will be remembered that Michel Leblanc, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, had come to his defense last spring. “He’s a perfect example of the ‘not in my backyard’ syndrome. It’s as if the neighborhood that came to live around an airport like Dorval demanded the closure of the airport.
The port and the logistics activities that surround it are, he said, “essential strategic infrastructure” with which we must learn to live.