Montreal will be able to release an additional sum of around 30 million to decontaminate land dedicated to housing projects, in the east of the metropolis and elsewhere, under an agreement reached with the government of Quebec.
This is what we learn in an opinion from the executive committee voted on behind closed doors in recent days, which has just been made public.
To date, the City can count on two funding programs for decontamination, one containing 75 million which is already completely exhausted and another of 100 million for which there was still 13 million dollars to be released. These funds will now be available to the Plante administration.
The agreement provides that Quebec will add 6.4 million in the first program. By adding the interest of approximately 10 million that the City has earned with the 87 million already committed from this second program, the City will therefore obtain the exact sum of 29.4 million additional.
Montreal will meanwhile extend an additional amount of around 6 million, for a total of just over 35 million available. “This will allow us to start several projects that are ready to go. We have around twenty projects pending. It’s essentially housing,” says the president of the executive committee and responsible for finances, Luc Rabouin, in an interview.
“That represents several hundred housing units,” adds Mr. Rabouin, who underlines the government’s collaboration in the matter. “Everyone needs to be aligned on housing, that’s the priority. This is an example of what we can do, but there will be others,” he says.
Especially in the east
The projects concerned are located almost everywhere on the island, but two thirds of them are located east of Papineau Avenue, in an area where the decontamination needs have been immense for years.
In addition to housing projects, the new funds should also make it possible to get certain early childhood center (CPE) and community space projects off the ground. Municipal lands must also already be decontaminated in the area of Saint-Jean-Baptiste Boulevard and Highway 40.
Called to react, the Minister responsible for Housing, France Élaine Duranceau, applauded the news, insisting on the fact that around twenty projects will thus “see the light of day quickly”. “They represent 900 million investments. I always say, the key to getting out of the housing crisis is to demonstrate agility and flexibility to increase supply,” said the minister.
“This agreement between the city and the government is the perfect example, and Montreal can always count on us when the time comes to break down barriers to accelerate the construction of housing,” persisted Mme Duranceau.
Last November, the Legault government established the Land Development Company in Eastern Montreal to acquire, decontaminate and resell contaminated industrial land. The Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, was then concerned that “few owners to date have been able to take advantage of the program” of 100 million under the City.
In opposition, we also denounce “the inaction of the Plante administration regarding the rehabilitation of land in the East”. “In reality, it was crumbs that were poured. As proof, the administration has the discretion to charge interest on these unused sums. While the provincial government recently took up the file of decontamination of the East due to the inaction of the Plante administration, the latter dares to pride itself on being proactive. She should rather work harder,” argued councilor Julien Hénault-Ratelle.