Land expropriated for a school in Mirabel | End of an era at Camping Donald

(Mirabel) On these hot September days, it is still summer at Camping Donald, but it no longer feels like vacation, or even the end of the season. It feels like the end of an era, something that many campers strongly denounce.

The land is being expropriated by the City of Mirabel to build an elementary school, and everyone will have to leave by November 15, the owners of the campsite announced at the end of June. For the approximately 340 seasonal campers, those campers who set up camp for the summer and leave their trailers on site for the winter, the news had the effect of a bomb.

“For an elderly person who lives in an 8-foot by 10-foot room, like my husband, who is in an intermediate resource, it was like an RPA [résidence privée pour aînés] “They could ride bicycles, run, go to the beach. They were free,” laments Line Delisle.

“There are many who are still crying. It’s over for them, they’re going to stay between four walls until they die,” laments Pierre Duquette, who has been living here for 20 years.

Several of his friends have trailers that are too old to be moved or accepted into another campground. “New ones are worth $90,000 to $100,000, seniors can’t afford things like that!”

At the other end of the lot, Pascal Denis is dismantling a trailer whose owners have had to come to terms with their loss. Three other units are waiting for him. “It’s been here for 40 years. Everything is pierced on top, everything is rusted underneath. You can’t move that. We’re taking it to the ecocentre,” he explains.

“What are we showing our grandchildren? Climate change, let’s save the forests. And now you’re cutting down century-old trees to build a school? That’s not logical,” denounce Claude Dominique and Line Michaud.

Like their neighbor Line Delisle, they will have to spend thousands of dollars to transfer their trailer, terrace and swing to a new campsite.

Pierre Duquette, for his part, will stay until the November 15 deadline. “That’s Duquette: when you embark on something, you always have hope.”

His son, Pierre-Pascal, is president of the association Sauvons le camping Donald. Marches, petitions, questions to the municipal council and the school service center, the non-profit organization of some 140 members turns over every stone.

Even though seasonal workers only live at the campsite from May to September, “an expropriation leaves terrible traces,” says M.^e Denise Beaudoin, who defended the expropriated farmers of Mirabel.

The lawyer is preparing claims for the losses suffered by the association’s members, but “we, at first glance, would like the expropriation not to take place.” The chances seem slim. The company that owns the campsite has not contested the expropriation.

“We can’t really comment,” replied one of the co-owners, Linda Chalifoux, whom we met briefly on the site.

With the news Law concerning expropriationcontesting a municipal expropriation for institutional purposes is not really an option, she mentions.

The company also received a notice of non-compliance and a $5,000 fine from the Ministry of the Environment for having “developed or operated a campground without it being served by a sewer system authorized by the minister.”

The fine was paid in January 2020, “but the breach has not been corrected,” the Ministry wrote to us in mid-September. “This case is being followed up” and “no appeal is excluded.”

“No choice”

“We understand the campers’ position very well, we find it extremely unfortunate, but for various reasons, we have no choice but to move forward,” replied the mayor of Mirabel, Patrick Charbonneau.

Quebec having already authorized the construction of a new primary school in the Saint-Canut sector, the City is obliged to transfer land there to the Rivière-du-Nord School Services Center (CSS).

And this campsite is “the only site offered [par la Ville] which was suitable,” the CSS tells us.

However, the owners had already taken “steps” to “be able to do residential,” Mr. Charbonneau says, showing us copies of documents. “Unfortunately, this campsite would have ended in a short time,” he believes.

The expropriated land covers 205,000 square meters (more than 20 hectares), the school buildings will occupy only a part of it. The City itself has already spoken of making residential or commercial development on the rest, but will ultimately limit itself to institutional, recreational and sports uses.

The approximately 135,000 m^⁠2 Land that will not be transferred to the CSS will be preserved as wooded areas, including the lake and the beach, promises the mayor.

Even the Montreal Metropolitan Community (CMM), which in 2022 rejected the location of the future elementary school because the campsite was outside its metropolitan perimeter, now agrees and has included the area in its perimeter.

Uncertain bill

The city offered more than $4.4 million to the company that owns the campsite, but its lawyers responded by demanding a very long list of documents, according to the file at the Administrative Tribunal of Quebec.

The company “will push the machine until it gets its maximum compensation, but […] “With the new law on expropriation, we will really be able to get a fair price for everyone,” said the mayor.

Mirabel also offered $1,000 in compensation to each tenant, in exchange for a commitment to vacate the premises on September 15 and to waive any other recourse or claim. More than 140 seasonal workers accepted.

As for the damages claimed by the members of the association, the mayor says he is “convinced” that the law does not give them the right to compensation.

A soil analysis is underway, and several other analyses (geotechnical, water, environmental, ecological) are required before the Ministry of Education authorizes the school service center to take possession of the land, the center tells us.

He hopes that the new 26-class primary school will be able to welcome its first pupils at the start of the school year in September 2029.