Doctors, public health specialists and environmentalists are demanding a health impact assessment (HIA) in the Assomption Sud–Longue-Pointe sector in Montreal. According to them, the inhabitants of this quadrangle adjoining the port must be protected from new industrial projects jeopardizing their health and their quality of life.
“This sector is the black lung of Montreal,” says Thomas Bastien, director general of the Association pour la santé publique du Québec, who is one of the signatories of an official request sent last week to the Regional Directorate. of Public Health (DRSP) of Montreal as well as to the City of Montreal.
HIAs integrate various parameters — such as air pollution, heat islands, noise, access to nature, the possibility of active transportation — which influence the health of populations. They assess the impact of the development of a sector as a whole. These reports, signed by the DRSPs, also include recommendations.
“We are talking about economic development, but it is also important to talk about health development, cultural development, social development”, explains the president of the Quebec Association of Physicians for the Environment (AQME), Claudel Pétrin-Desrosiers. . She is also one of the signatories to the petition, a summary of which is published in the Opinion section of the To have to.
“Pollution Burden”
The Assomption Sud–Longue-Point extends over three kilometers along the St. Lawrence River, in the borough of Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. The Longue-Pointe yard, Souligny Avenue and Highway 25 border it to the west, north and east respectively. It includes a military base, large parking lots, warehouses, oil tanks and modest houses.
“This is a sector that historically has endured an inordinate burden of pollution,” said the DD Petrin-Desrosiers. An HIA would provide decision-makers with “objective and scientific” information, making it possible to avoid aggravating the socio-environmental inequalities that already affect the population, she argues.
Ray-Mont Logistiques wants to build an intermodal platform that can store up to 10,000 shipping containers in the west of the Assomption Sud–Longue-Pointe sector. This project, which has aroused the opposition of citizens for years, will not be the subject of a complete evaluation by the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE).
Next decision
The City of Montreal, for its part, plans to develop the Grande Prairie Industrial Ecopark in this sector. Road improvements are on the menu. The administration of Valérie Plante, opposed to the Ray-Mont Logistiques project, was however forced by the courts to grant building permits to the contractor. The latter is now suing her for delaying the work.
The Montreal Regional Public Health Department confirmed to the To have tohaving received the EIS request. It will judge in the coming weeks whether it is advisable to proceed with its study. The Assomption Sud–Longue-Pointe sector is “in transformation” and an HIA would “provide recommendations upstream [des projets de développement] to reduce health risks.
HIAs are recommended by Quebec, in particular through its government health prevention policy. The authorities have used this new tool a few dozen times in recent years in several regions of the province. In Montreal, the exercise was only carried out for the Réseau express vélo.