Hundreds protest against planned container yard in east-end neighbourhood

Hundreds of people protested in east-end Montreal on Saturday against a company's plan to build a container yard in a residential neighbourhood.

“We cannot allow the destruction of our environment to profit a business,” said Anaïs Houde, spokesperson for the group Mobilisation 6600 Parc-nature MHM, which organized the demonstration against the Ray-mont Logistiques project in Mercier—hochelaga-maisonneuve.

“It's completely unacceptable.” Ray-mont Logistiques wants to build the yard on a vacant site to warehouse containers of agricultural products before they're sent to the Port of Montreal.

However, Houde said the project would have numerous negative consequences, including the destruction of natural space, the creation of a heat island, the loss of biodiversity, the arrival of polluting infrastructure and increased traffic from trucks and trains. It would also create vibrations and noise 24 hours a day, she said, adding the project would be built less than 100 metres from homes.

Québec solidaire spokesperson and MNA Gabriel Nadeau-dubois, who attended the protest, called on the Quebec Environment Department to intervene and carry out an environmental assessment.

“We're in 2021, the environment and the economy should go together,” he said.

The leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-pierre Plamondon, also joined the protest.

“The government must impose an environmental assessment so we can have the facts on the environmental impact, but also the social acceptability,” he said, adding his party promises to table a motion this week to force an answer from the government on whether it will submit the project to hearings by the province's Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement (BAPE).

Outgoing federal Liberal cabinet minister Steven Guilbeault was also at the protest, as were the three candidates running for the seat in Hochelaga riding in the federal election: Liberal Soraya Martinez Ferrada, New Democrat Catheryn Roy-goyette and Bloc Québécois candidate Simon Marchand.

“We're happy that all the levels of government were represented at the demonstration today,” Houde said, adding she believes “the provincial level has a role to play.”

Houde said her group won't settle for mitigation measures and motions, and wants the conservation of the site as a nature park.

The president and general director of Ray-mont Logistiques, Charles Raymond, said in a statement the firm is seeking to develop a “modern project” that will benefit “as much the community, Montreal as all of Quebec.”

“We're aware that our project could raise questions for certain residents in the area and it's legitimate that they express them publicly,” he said.

Ray-mont Logistiques bought the land in 2016. The city initially refused to grant a construction permit, a decision that was overturned by the courts. The company is now suing the city for $373 million in damages.

The company put the project on pause in June to work with the city to come up with recommendations by the end of September.

In its statement, the company said it has already invested $35 million since buying the land, including $15 million to decontaminate the soil. The project, it said, would reduce truck traffic on Notre-dame St. E. by one-third. It also said its project would create 200 new jobs and help in delivering humanitarian Canadian aid to other countries.