Temporary shelter installers lack the time and manpower to meet the demands of customers who wish to remove them before the deadline set by their municipality.
“There’s more and more tempo shelters, but there’s no workforce…the deadline is April 15, it doesn’t make sense,” lamented Samuel Lecavalier, owner of 100 abris, a temporary shelter installer in Montreal .
Since Saturday, emergency shelters have had to be dismantled in several cities, including Montreal, Sherbrooke and Brossard.
While many owners take care of cleaning up their shelter themselves, others need assistance.
“Many of our customers are seniors, but there are also people who prefer to do business with experts,” he adds.
The majority of the installers Le Journal spoke to did not begin dismantling the shelters until April 7 at the earliest. A week later, some of them have already given up.
“We will never be able to uninstall everything in time, which takes eight weeks in the fall,” says Stéphane Lauzon, whose teams have only been on the job since April 13.
No extension
The installer serving the South Shore was hit like everyone else by April’s inclement weather. Impossible to get on with his work between rain and ice.
The Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie district of Montreal, which reminded its citizens that the temporary shelters and their structures must be “dismantled by April 15 at the latest”, is not granting an extension.
In Quebec, the deadline is April 30, but according to Vanessa Allard, owner of Abris ServiPro, it’s too early.
“I have six teams in the field that are running at full speed [60 à 70 heures par semaine]but we know we won’t make it,” she said.
The entrepreneur estimates that a total of 20 days without rain are necessary to keep all his customers happy. Last year, two of his clients were fired because the company failed to meet deadlines.
For some until May
Ms. Allard has even spoken to the City of Quebec to ask for more time, to no avail.
“It’s sure to be later in Quebec than Montreal, but it’s been two years since we missed our deadline,” she adds.
However, the city of Trois-Rivières, which is halfway between the capital and the metropolis, is giving its citizens until May 15 to withdraw their temporary housing.
Samuel Lecavalier even intended to petition for a change in regulations in Montérégie.
“If we had two more weeks, everything would change,” he regrets.
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