Decontamination | Montreal will now advance half of the sums

In order to accelerate the decontamination of the land, the City of Montreal is modifying its program by now advancing half of the sums to the owners before the start of the environmental work.

“We are announcing today that the City will give a 50% advance as soon as the project is submitted as part of a structured approach that respects all the conditions,” said Luc Rabouin, member of the City of Montreal’s executive committee responsible for development. economic and commercial. We think it will unlock the projects that are currently on the ice, because the owner does not have the financing to advance his sums, “he explains.

Mr. Rabouin participated in an event on real estate and urban development in eastern Montreal which was held at the Anjou golf course on Friday morning.

Former contaminated industrial land has been hampering the development of the eastern part of the island of Montreal for years.

Until now, the City, which reimburses up to 90% of the cost of the work, is waiting for the end of the work to pay the money. In this case, “100% of the risk is on the owner who makes his move”, explained Mr. Rabouin. With rising interest rates, developers hesitated before embarking on costly rehabilitation work.

Result: out of the 100 million envelope, only 10 million dollars of projects are made eligible and 40 million are in evaluation.

This decontamination program is funded by the $100 million grant that Quebec gave to the City of Montreal for this purpose in 2019.

Landowners have until the end of the year to apply.