Noise barrier in Longueuil | “We shouldn’t have a penny to pay”

Residents of Longueuil decry the Fournier administration’s desire to bill them some $20,000 each to finance the construction of a noise barrier between Route 116 and their residential area.

The municipality is the third in Greater Montreal, after Mascouche and Brossard, to propose in recent months the imposition of a “local improvement tax” for such a structure. Each time, citizens oppose it, arguing that it is all of their fellow citizens who should put their hands in their pockets.

Longueuil made a commitment several years ago to build the wall using its own budget. A few hundred meters have already been built 10 years ago. But faced with the explosion of its project’s budget since the pandemic, Longueuil opted for an original solution: offer the 265 residents of the borough of Saint-Hubert who will directly benefit from the wall to assume the difference between the estimated 2018 and the actual cost, failing which the project will be abandoned.

Expected bill, in the absence of cost overruns: up to $23,600 for those who want to pay all at once or up to $36,300 spread over 20 years.

“It is not with lightness of heart that we come to present this scenario to you. It is not lightheartedly that we see the explosion of costs in this project,” Mayor Catherine Fournier told citizens during a recent information session.

“It’s one project among many projects,” she added. Earlier in the meeting, its officials had explained to citizens that their project represented 12 park repairs or 2 synthetic soccer fields.

Catherine Fournier has promised a final decision in the short term.

But his explanations do not pass.

“We want the wall,” argued Marc Pastor, in an interview with The Press. “We shouldn’t have a penny to pay given that it was decided several years ago and that it is due to the traffic which has increased over the last ten years. »

“I bought that house in 2020 because I called the City and they told me it was budgeted and it was going to be done,” said Alejandra Camacho, a resident of the area, in public session. “Your team came to our house and promised me that I was going to have my wall. »

The wall would separate the neighborhood from provincial road 116, where traffic has increased significantly over the years, but also from a railway line and the Saint-Hubert airport.

Mascouche and Brossard give up

If Longueuil goes ahead with this project, the City would use a taxation power provided for a long time in the law, explained Marie-Claude Prémont, professor at the National School of Public Administration (ENAP).

“It’s a very old tax,” she explained. Traditionally, it was used in particular to charge for the installation of the water distribution network only to the houses that were connected to it. “It’s the classic case where it’s pretty clear. »

But the law only very minimally regulates the type of projects that can be subject to such a local tax, she continued.

Since the beginning of 2023, Mascouche and Brossard have also offered some of their citizens to finance – totally or partially – the construction of noise barriers along busy arteries.

This spring, neighbors who live near the A25 in Mascouche were shocked to learn that they might have to pay up to $437,000 in local improvement tax to erect a noise barrier. “We’re not going to pay all that for someone’s whim,” denounced resident Miguel Thomas in an interview with The Press. ” I do not have that. I am retired. With our retirement, we arrive, we get out of it, but it’s impossible. After a poll that showed strong opposition, Mascouche abandoned the project.

Same scenario in Brossard. The City announced last week that it would not proceed with construction of a $13 million noise barrier along the 132. It offered to meet 75% of the city’s contribution to the project and pass on 25% of this bill to 712 owners.

Often “highly disputed”

According to Danielle Pilette, professor at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) and expert in the municipal world, the use of the local improvement tax has been on the decline in recent years.

This type of use – for a sound barrier – is often “highly contested”, she pointed out.

Like other decisions of a municipal council, the imposition of a local improvement tax could be the subject of a challenge in court, or even a referendum approval process. But once the tax is imposed, it becomes mandatory for all citizens concerned. Buildings can be seized and sold at auction in the event of non-payment, as for the rest of the municipal taxes.

Frequent or not, the project does not seem to pass in Longueuil. Not a single citizen spoke in favor of the project during the session at the end of June.

“The world that is here is not happy, summed up Alejandra Camacho. There is still a limit to taking people for fools. »

“Having that price to pay on my tax bill, I don’t want the wall,” said Hugo Bergeron, who has lived nearby since 1999. “In 10 years, I want to sell my house at a reasonable price. , with a reasonable tax bill, so that the small family who will be living with us has a reasonable price to pay. »