Montreal pays 17 million to Ray-Mont Logistiques and will protect the Steinberg forest

Photo: Charles Masse The City of Montreal has committed to protecting Steinberg Woods, located in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.

Alexandre Shields

Published yesterday at 2:50 p.m.

• Montreal

Montreal will pay $17 million to Ray-Mont Logistiques, which has decided to set up a major industrial container transhipment project on the edge of a residential neighbourhood. The city also announced on Thursday that it is protecting Steinberg Woods, one of the few green spaces in this sector of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.

Facing a lawsuit from Ray-Mont Logistiques (RML), which was claiming $373 million due to delays in obtaining authorization for the project located north of Notre-Dame Street in the city’s east end, Montreal has finally managed to reach an agreement with the company in exchange for $17 million in compensation.

The city also announced Thursday that it will protect the entire Steinberg woodland, a nearly 40,000 m2 area located north of the RML site that residents have been demanding be preserved for several years. A street extension project previously threatened to encroach on this green space.

This woodland will eventually be connected to another located nearby, thanks to the protection of a “wasteland” where railway tracks are currently located. The objective, the City explained in a press release, is to “create a buffer zone between industrial activities and neighboring residential areas, particularly Viauville.”

“According to this new development planned for the sector, only multi-purpose trails and bike paths will be able to cross the wooded area in order to guarantee its accessibility to a diversity of users,” it was specified.

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“The uncertain future of the Steinberg woods has been a concern for the population for many years. It is therefore with relief and pride that we are putting an end to the road extension project in the woods, which began several decades ago,” said Pierre Lessard-Blais, Mayor of the Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough, on Thursday.

In addition to preserving the Steinberg woods, the City “is committed to continuing to evaluate scenarios as part of the Assomption-Souligny project.”

A scenario already mentioned provides for the creation of a new road section starting from Notre-Dame Street and running along the eastern portion of the RML property, then joining Souligny Avenue.

This option could also channel trucking out of the Port of Montreal, as the City anticipates an increase in this industrial traffic in the area. In addition to these new road infrastructures, the City could review Dickson Street between Hochelaga and Notre-Dame streets.

Project nuisances

A City of Montreal document designated as “confidential” and obtained earlier this year by Le Devoir had also noted the potential nuisances linked to the RML project. “The arrival of RML in the area will induce rail traffic not seen in the area since the years of Canadian Steel Foundries,” a company that occupied the same site until 2004, it reads.

“This activity will inevitably cause nuisances to the surrounding area,” the document emphasizes, mentioning the passage of 100 cars per day, which will cause “multiple nuisances [noise, dust, light pollution].”

The Legault government authorized a first phase in 2022, which allows for the storage of 5,000 containers on the site as well as the transit of 1,500 trucks each day.

Despite repeated requests from Hochelaga-Maisonneuve residents, the Legault government has repeatedly refused to conduct an environmental assessment of all the impacts of this industrial project. Such an examination could have been conducted by the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE) if Quebec Environment Minister Benoit Charette had demanded it.