A few days before the Eastern Summit scheduled for Monday, the Official Opposition at city hall is demanding a tripartite action plan of 2.4 billion over 10 years for the eastern territory of the island of Montreal.
That’s a lot of money at a time when the City’s finances are in the red. The city’s next budget is due out on November 15. Montrealers are preparing for an increase in their tax burden which could reach 5%. Already, districts have adopted local tax increases that have exceeded 10% in many cases.
“On the side of the official opposition, unfortunately, we are of the opinion that since the declaration for the east of Montreal, which now dates back five years ago,” he continued, “there has been no concrete action which was undertaken by the Projet Montréal administration to develop eastern Montreal. »
To support his assertion, the elected official from Ensemble Montréal talks about the envelope of 100 million that Quebec made available to the City of Montreal in 2019 to decontaminate land in the East. Based on a response to documents obtained under a freedom of information request, the opposition argues that less than $1 million has been used to date.
The Eastern plan that his party is proposing requires the intervention of the federal government and Quebec and the municipal authorities at the rate of 800 million each. The portion financed by Montreal would be shared between the central city, the eastern boroughs and the City of Montreal East.
As for the structuring transport project, the opposition mentions that the bill for peripheral works falling under the authority of the City was estimated in the past between 600 and 800 million.
“The Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal did a study which spoke of an estimate of around 840 million to decontaminate land in the east,” recalls Mr. Hénault-Ratelle.
The industrial sector of Pointe-de-l’Île (SIPI) identifies 24 million square feet (2.2 million square meters) of contaminated land.
The remaining 800 million would go to infrastructure. “The establishment of municipal infrastructure is necessary, insists the councilor, because otherwise we will find ourselves in a scenario like that of the racetrack where due to a lack of municipal infrastructure, the project does not develop. »
Long-awaited projects in the east have been announced in recent months, such as the modernization of the Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital and the extension of the blue metro line. In terms of achievement, note the completion of a large part of the SRB Pie-IX line.