In order to accelerate the decontamination of industrial lands in eastern Montreal, Quebec announced Monday the creation of an organization to pilot revitalization projects for this long-neglected territory. The arrival of the Society for the Development of Land in the East of Montreal (SMTEM) coincides with the granting of an additional amount of $100 million for land decontamination.
The new organization, resulting from a partnership with Fondaction Asset Management, will work directly on the rehabilitation of contaminated land deemed to have high economic potential, the government said. The money invested should allow the purchase of land as well as the completion of studies and decontamination work required in collaboration with the City of Montreal and the City of Montreal-East.
In 2019, the government of Quebec granted the City of Montreal an initial amount of 100 million to support owners in their decontamination work. Quebec then promised that another sum of 100 million would be devoted to these operations.
“The decontamination and revaluation of vacant land are essential to the development of the sector, one of the most strategic in the Quebec metropolis,” commented the Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy and responsible for the metropolis. , Pierre Fitzgibbon, Monday during the Eastern Summit which took place at the Olympic Stadium.
“Disavowal” towards the City?
For the opposition at Montreal City Hall, Quebec’s decision to set up a company to manage decontamination projects in the East is a “complete disavowal” of the City of Montreal which, advance Ensemble Montréal, has been unable to move this issue forward for four years. According to Ensemble Montréal advisor Julien Hénault-Ratelle, by creating the SMTEM, Quebec “literally decided to bypass it in order to ultimately achieve the decontamination of eastern Montreal.”
According to information from the City obtained by Ensemble Montréal following an access to information request, only an amount of $666,630 in subsidies has been paid to date for completed projects out of the total envelope of $100 million for the decontamination of land throughout the City of Montreal.
“So in four years, out of the envelope of 100 million that was given by the government of Quebec, we realize that the sums that were given are really derisory,” notes the elected official.
The mayor of Pointe-aux-Trembles–Rivière-des-Prairies, Caroline Bourgeois, counters that many projects are however on track. “Sums of 54 million are committed for projects. Sometimes, there are a bunch of elements that mean that a project has not started to break ground,” she explained. “We would like it to be done in one or two weeks with the snap of a finger, but it takes time for these projects to be done. »
She admits that the work carried out by the City with land owners took time to bear fruit. In this context, the creation by Quebec of a company to manage these files is good news, according to her.