St. Laurent reluctant to help booming church

The popular United Pentecostal Church in St. Laurent wants to move to a bigger facility but the borough does not appear eager to play ball.

Pastor Paul Graham, who has been with the church for almost 40 years, tells CTV Montreal that the 600-seats are simply not enough for the 1,200-or-so who use the church but the borough has not made relocation easy.

“We've met with the urbanism department and they've given us suggestions of where to look but it seems each property that we choose, they have a reason why they cannot rezone it,” said Graham.

Borough Mayor Alan DeSousa has said that the borough want to stick with its master plan and would prefer to avoid rezonings.

The church is not the only place of worship at loggerheads with the borough. Last March the borough demanded the closure of a mosque operating out of a community centre. So far that mosque is still operational as the borough studies the zoning issue.

Places of worship are exempt from municipal tax so any such change would not bring in new tax revenues that come with other residential and commercial developments.

Graham said that churches might not be cash cows for municipalities but they offer much upside.

“Churches offer a great benefit to the community. we have a lot of young people here in our congregation and people that used to be on drugs, alcohol, in gangs, now they're very honorable members of society,” said Graham.