Former quarry to become green space

With a slide show presentation and mild fanfare, the city of Montreal announced it is ready to start the next phase in transforming the site of the former St-Michel quarry and dump into the second-largest green space in the city.

But residents of the area said the announcement was a thinly veiled attempt to divert attention from the composting centre slated to be placed there against their wishes.

By 2017, Montrealers will be able to use some parts of the park and, by 2020 when it’s finished, the Complexe environmental de St-Michel will include an amphitheatre, wooded areas, indoor soccer complex, a lake, sports centres and pathways on which to walk and bike.

“The park constitutes the largest environmental rehabilitation project ever

“Why would you put a dump in the middle of a greenspace park?”

CLAUDE BRICAULT, NEWSPAPER EDITOR

undertaken by the city of Montreal,” said city councillor Josée Duplessis. The focus of work at the site includes covering the old quarry that was used for decades as a garbage dump and developing the site as a public park, a project that will cost $320 million when it’s completed.

But St-Michel residents, tired of seeing their neighbourhood used as a dumping ground, said the city’s plans to install a composting centre there by 2016 — within 150 metres of homes — must be changed.

“Why would you put a dump in the middle of a green-space park in a residential area?” said Claude Bricault, editor of local newspaper Journal de St-Michel. “It makes no sense.”

Duplessis said the compost centre would be enclosed and not affect residents’ lives, and the city has no intention of changing locations.