Daycare Being torn down for new REM station
Simon Briscoe moved to his house in Deux-Montagnes last year in part because its proximity to a train station and daycare centre allowed the family to sell one of its two cars.
“That was the whole appeal: I could get downtown door to door in an hour, so it was very convenient,” Briscoe said.
But on June 30, the daycare that his son James attended closed because the building is being expropriated for the future Réseau express métropolitain — a driverless electric light-rail service that will replace the current DeuxMontagnes commuter train line and link to the airport, West Island and South Shore, starting in phases from 2021 to 2023.
The Édifice Jean- Guy Bergeron, where the Garderie Éducative L’Enfant Do Inc. was located, is slated to be demolished to build a bus terminus linking to the REM station. As a result of the daycare’s shuttering, Briscoe, 45, has had to buy a second car to take his son to a new daycare 10 kilometres away in St-Eustache, before heading home and hopping on a train to get to work downtown. Briscoe, an art director at a marketing agency, now has to pay rent for a parking spot, and for the upkeep of a car, which he says adds up to hundreds of dollars more per month.
He said he feels while the closing of the daycare is a big deal to him and roughly 100 other families that used it, elected officials don’t really seem to care.
“There was no movement to try to save the place,” he said.
Construction at the station isn’t slated to start until at least 2020, so Briscoe said he doesn’t know why the building had to be closed.
Deux-Montagnes Mayor Denis Martin said the building had once been used by the city’s public works department and other municipal offices. Most of those services were relocated, and the building had been mostly vacant for about 10 years, with the exception of the daycare centre that opened in 2010. The city had been trying to sell the building for several years.
He said there are several other daycares located a few hundred metres away from the train station, so he didn’t see the closing of the train station as a big inconvenience. “I don’t think people will be too penalized, but obviously losing a daycare centre is not ideal,” he said.
However, Briscoe said all the daycares in the city are full, and the closest one he could find to suit his needs was in neighbouring St-Eustache.
Speaking for the REM, JeanVincent Lacroix said the land in question will only be expropriated on July 21, 2019, and the building will have to be razed in order to build the new train station and adjacent bus depot. The decision to close earlier was one made by the daycare centre, he said. Lacroix said renters and owners who are expropriated have the right to compensation either to relocate or to close down, and must negotiate with the province’s transport department. Attempts by the Montreal Gazette to reach the daycare centre’s owners were not successful on Tuesday.
Aside from forcing him to drive to his son’s daycare, the REM’s construction has also disrupted Briscoe’s work schedule, as construction has caused more delays than normal on the Deux-Montagnes train line. He said his train that leaves from the station at 8 a.m. is regularly 10 minutes late.
“I can’t drive,” Briscoe said.” It takes two-plus hours to get downtown, plus another $300 per month for parking, so I’m kinda stuck.”
Martin said he too is concerned by numerous delays on the train line, and has received many complaints from citizens.
A spokesperson for Exo, the agency that runs the commuter train lines did not return an email request by the Montreal Gazette with questions about the numerous disruptions on the line.