The City of Montreal will shortly announce that it will move forward with the extension of Boulevard de l’Assomption, we have learned The duty. This new road section is designed primarily to facilitate industrial trucking in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. The project could also require the partial destruction of one of the last wooded areas in the area, which citizens wish to protect.
According to information obtained by The dutyValérie Plante’s administration is currently finalizing the details of this project directly linked to the transport of containers by truck and which has been mentioned several times in recent years.
The City and the Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district were initially stingy with comments on the matter this week. In a written response, the City finally admitted that it is currently working “on various scenarios for the extension of Boulevard de l’Assomption.” It is specified at the same time that the project “must take into account numerous issues, including mitigating the impact of Ray-Mont Logistiques’ activities on the population”.
One thing is certain, the work is sufficiently advanced for the City of Montreal to plan “a public presentation of the project, in all its details”, “for the beginning of spring 2024”. And even if the City affirms that any project in the sector must make it possible to “maximize” the protection of the last “green spaces”, it has refused to say whether the full protection of the Steinberg woodland, located between rue Hochelaga and the Ray site -Mont Logistics, is guaranteed. Part of the wooded area is protected by the City.
For the port
The Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility affirms for its part that this wooded land, one of the last in the sector, “is highly strategic, and its future will be further clarified when all the stakeholders concerned have moved forward on their respective files”. No timetable has been specified.
The ministry nevertheless gives an overview of what will be announced to citizens. Concretely, the Plante administration and the Legault government wish to “improve the functionality of travel between Avenue Souligny and Rue Notre-Dame, as well as access to the Port of Montreal”.
This involves “the extension of Boulevard de l’Assomption to Rue Notre-Dame”, but also “the extension of Avenue Souligny to the future segment of Boulevard de l’Assomption”. Technically, it seems impossible to extend Boulevard de l’Assomption without passing through the Steinberg woodland.
These new road sections will facilitate “the fluidity” of the movements of trucks transporting containers leaving the Port of Montreal. In a written response, the Montreal port authority mentions the passage of 1,500 trucks per day.
These heavy vehicles could be added to the hundreds of trucks that will pass through the Ray-Mont Logistiques site, a company which has already built the first phases of a container transshipment platform project on a vast plot of land located north of the rue Notre-Dame and on the borders of a disadvantaged residential area.
Are new road projects necessary for the development of the Ray-Mont Logistiques project? By email, the company indicates that these are “decisions taken unilaterally by the City of Montreal, for which Ray-Mont Logistiques does not have the details”.
The developer is currently suing the City for $373 million due to the long delays required to grant him authorization. The project did not have to go through the environmental assessment process normally imposed on large industrial projects in Quebec. The Legault government refused citizens’ requests to this effect.
“Useless” extension
Spokesperson for Mobilization 6600, a citizen group which fought against the establishment of Ray-Mont Logistiques and for the protection of the last green spaces in the sector, Anaïs Houde is however categorical: these road projects primarily serve the interests of the company and the port of Montreal.
“We have the impression of being faced with a fait accompli,” she laments. Despite requests made under the Access to Information Act, the group has never been able to obtain plans illustrating what is planned in the neighborhood. “And the extension of Boulevard de l’Assomption into the Steinberg woodland is useless. Who will it be used for? » she asks.
Mme Houde already fears the content of the consultation which will be held in the spring. “They are going to present us with a project with public benches, vegetated projections, etc. But we don’t want to comment on the color of the street lights or the shape of the trash cans. We want the Steinberg woodland to be spared,” she insists. According to official data, the neighborhood’s canopy index barely exceeds 12%, in a context of increasing summer heat waves.
Mobilization 6600 also fears that a wooded wasteland located to the west of the Ray-Mont Logistiques site will be reduced. The citizens who live on the borders of this imposing industrial development want this land to be protected in order to create a linear park which would allow circulation from the Vimont woodland, located further south, to the Steinberg woodland, and possibly even to the Maisonneuve Park.
The City of Montreal did not respond to questions from Duty concerning this wooded wasteland, the width of which could be reduced, according to Mobilization 6600. The administration of Valérie Plante tells us that the “detailed presentation” planned for the spring will be an opportunity to “answer legitimate questions” from the population.
In November 2023, the federal government discussed the protection of this strip of land by emphasizing that “nature contributes to the health, well-being and recreation of the Canadian population and to the prosperity of the country’s economy.”