Mayor Plante wants to create 'sponge roads' to adapt to climate change

Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante speaks at a summit on unhoused people organized by the Quebec Union of Municipalities (UMQ), in Quebec City, Friday, Sept. 15, 2023. Gatineau mayor France Belisle, right, looks on. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante is proposing the creation of 'sponge roads' to adapt to climate change, which would involve making certain streets more permeable, for example by removing asphalt and therefore parking spaces.

Invited by the Conseil des relations internationales de Montréal (CORIM) to discuss the role of large cities in the face of the climate crisis, Plante suggested on Tuesday that sponge streets be created.

“The idea is to keep the road open, but for example, in certain places where there is parking, to perhaps remove some parking spaces to create more permeable areas. Because what happens with torrential rains is that the aqueduct network isn't ready, isn't designed for this, for this volume of water that falls all at once,” she said.

More and more often, torrential rains are overloading Montreal's sewage system and putting a strain on the city's infrastructure.

Flooding linked to climate change is set to increase, and the mayor noted that some neighbourhoods are more vulnerable than others.

“There are places in the city where, with every torrential downpour (...), they get flooded, so what do we do? I have to change the territory, I can't leave it the same, people are no longer insurable, it's unbelievably sad to see people come crying to a borough council meeting,” she said

Demineralizing public space or greening urban environments to allow natural spaces to absorb rainwater is recognized as an effective measure for adapting to climate change.

During the torrential rains at the beginning of July, the underground network was unable to swallow the amount of water dumped from the sky. Roads such as Décarie Blvd. became veritable swimming pools, homes were flooded, water also entered the metro system, and manholes literally flew off under the pressure of the water.

In Montreal, 43 per cent of greenhouse gases are caused by transport, mainly the car, and in recent weeks, certain measures introduced by the Plante administration to curb the expansion of the car fleet in favour of active mobility have raised some citizens’ tempers.

For example, demonstrations recently took place in the Parc-Extension neighbourhood, where 250 parking spaces are to be removed to create a new bicycle path. The city has also upset some citizens by announcing that the Camillien-Houde route over Mount Royal will no longer be accessible to vehicle transport as of 2027.

In a discussion with Mark Watts, executive director of the C40 network, which brings together cities committed to the ecological transition, the mayor acknowledged that measures to adapt to climate change, such as the creation of sponge streets, are likely to create discontent.

“Faced with climate change, we are definitely being asked to act. So we have to make choices that aren't always easy," said Plante.

- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Sept. 26, 2023.