How long should a company that buys, by right, an industrial land in the east end of Montreal expect to wait before finally being able to undertake its activities there?
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In the case of Ray-Mont Logistiques, a Quebec company that has become a major player in the transportation of grain in Canada, the waiting period has already been stretching for five years. And nothing, in the short term, suggests that its activities will be able to begin anytime soon.
“Listen, it’s been going on since 2016,” says its president Charles Raymond. We have already devoted five years of our lives to this project. Millions have already been invested. And for five years, it’s been one pitfall after another. At the rate things are going, I honestly can’t tell you when they will settle. »
Industrial past
The 2.5 million sq. ft. land, a brownfield site occupied for almost a century by the Canadian Steel Foundries, was purchased by Ray-Mont in 2016 to relocate its logistics activities there.
Established for 30 years in the southwest of Montreal, not far from the developing Bassin Wellington district in Pointe-Saint-Charles, the company was looking to expand its activities while getting closer to the Port of Montreal, a key partner. .
The company specializes in the transhipment of grains and cereals arriving by rail, in containers intended for transport by ship to Europe and Asia, among others.
Located on Notre-Dame East, across from the Port of Montreal and next to the Canadian National railway rights-of-way, the vast land – designated by the City to become a logistics hub – seemed ideal.
fierce opposition
However, this was without taking into account the opposition of citizens of Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve who, since the demolition of the old foundry in 2005, had begun to appropriate the contaminated space and hoped for the creation of a municipal park. .
Repeated demonstrations, vandalism, explosive devices, death threats, even… The CEO does not wish to dwell on these cases, some of which are the subject of police investigations. But he worries.
A few weeks ago, he explains, a group of opponents organized a sugar shack-type family activity on the site. Two weeks ago, a human chain was organized to protest Quebec’s decision not to order a BAPE on the project.
“I understand that people are disappointed that there is no park. […] But by dint of throwing oil on the fire, organizing events on site, taking pictures of themselves in front of the containers, an accident will eventually happen, worries Charles Raymond. People don’t realize it, but it’s a job. Not only is it irresponsible to meet there, but it’s dangerous. »
Not in my backyard
Faced with the borough’s refusal to issue the permits, the Superior Court confirmed, in the meantime, Ray-Mont’s right to develop its project on this site. In 2021, the Court of Appeal dismissed the City again, confirming the judgment rendered by the Superior Court, three years earlier.
For Michel Leblanc, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, the difficulties she encounters in moving her activities are incomprehensible. They go beyond him as much as, he recalls, his project follows a call from the City to design a logistics center on this land.
“It’s a perfect example of the ‘not in my backyard’ syndrome,” he says. It’s as if the neighborhood that came to live around an airport like Dorval demanded that the airport be closed. »
The port and the logistics activities that surround it are, he says, essential strategic infrastructures with which we must learn to live.
Ray-Mont Logistiques agrees. Its CEO claims to have already accepted some fifteen proposed mitigation measures and invested $20 million in the rehabilitation of contaminated soils. He also recalls that the project would reduce heavy truck traffic on Notre-Dame Street East by nearly 30%, a long-standing demand from area residents.