Container yard expansion: ‘We don’t want this either’ Montreal mayor says

The City of Montreal will allow Ray-Mont Logistiques to install a shipping container yard on a lot in a residential area of the Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough.

The project is highly controversial, with both the city and residents pushing back for almost 10 years.

The change would transform the site into a transportation hub where containers will be received, stored and transferred via rail and truck.

Residents at City Hall protested the decision and demanded that the city preserve surrounding green spaces as parks to curb noise and traffic.

“Allow me to say that we don’t want this either,” said Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante while answering questions at a city council meeting Monday evening.

She said the city’s previous administration, under Denis Coderre, changed zoning laws in 2015 that allowed Ray-Mont Logistiques to buy the land and transform it.

Had that government not altered the zoning rules, it would have been easier to contest the project, said Plante.

Ray-Mont Logistiques bought the land in 2016.

Montreal initially refused to grant it a building permit, a decision that was eventually overturned by the courts due to zoning rules at the time of purchase.

The company sued the city for $373 million in damages but agreed to an out-of-court settlement, which included specific regulations for site development, moving noisy equipment away from residential areas, planting trees and developing on-site parking and buildings.

“We tried everything. We tried to pursue them in court, we tried to negotiate, we tried to settle,” Plante said.

The settlement also established commitments from both the city and the company to improve development in the sector, some of which required approval under section 89 of the City Charter to amend the borough’s urban planning bylaws.

A public consultation was also mandated, but Ray-Mont Logistiques said that “whether or not the derogations are accepted will have no impact on the company’s ability to operate” and the proposed initiatives are “aimed at improving the layout of the site and linking it in with other projects under development in the area.”

Pierre Lessard-Blais, mayor of Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, said that after two different judges ordered the city to issue Ray-Mont Logistiques its permits, it had little recourse to fight back.

Instead, the city said it plans to invest $88 million to create a “green shield” to protect the neighbourhood from industrial noise and traffic.

It said it also hopes to purchase land around the container yard and preserve it for residential use.

“We did say that from the beginning, that we want to co-create these green spaces with the citizens,” said councillor Alia Hassan-Cournol.

According to information provided by Ray-Mont Logistiques during a public presentation, 300,000 container movements per year are expected, or 1,000 trucks per day entering and leaving the site.

Cassandre Charbonneau-Jobin, who has been pushing against the project for years, said it is “completely incompatible with a neighbourhood.”

A report by Montreal’s public consultation office (OCPM) made public in March recommended that the city postpone approving regulatory amendments for the project and conduct a complete reassessment of the plan.

Charbonneau-Jobin said she had hoped the city would put more pressure on the company to take residents into consideration In making socially responsible decisions, but said it “caved in.”

“Planting 60 more trees on the land is not serious ... we need more,” she said.