The proposed paving of a site larger than five football fields to transform it into a massive nearly 1,900-space parking lot surrounding the future Vaudreuil-Dorion hospital remains with local elected officials again imploring Quebec to reconsider its plans.
A petition containing more than 2,300 names of opponents of the park project is due to be presented to the National Assembly on Tuesday by the independent MP for Vaudreuil, Marie-Claude Nichols.
Last June, she and the mayor of Vaudreuil-Dorion, Guy Pilon, protested in a public action against the abandonment of a multi-storey car park project, whether underground or above ground, in favor of conventional parking options for cost reasons.
status quo
Nothing has changed since then. “They will create a heat island of more than five hectares next to a hospital. […] “We go back 10 years, 15 years, with an asphalt “spot,” protested Mr. Pilon in an interview with the QMI agency on the eve of the submission of the petition.
The mayor is all the more discouraged that Vaudreuil-Dorion is trying to counteract heat islands. As an example, he gave the fact that developers had to build underground parking garages and that the city planted 11,000 trees last year.
“We have reached the end of our strength with our actions. […] We tried to hold meetings with different ministers, regardless of who was involved,” the mayor added, regretting that he only received feedback from the CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest.
The judge hopes the petition will persuade the government to change its plans, but is not hopeful. “It is the government that leads. He makes the laws, he breaks the laws, he changes the laws. He does what he wants, and I don’t mean that in a negative way. […]. If he comes to the conclusion that nothing is moving, there won’t be much left to do,” he admitted.
The hospital project was originally valued at $1.7 billion, but was reassessed at $2.6 billion. To reduce costs, the government decided to build a large parking lot, a solution that would save between $50 and $80 million.
The office of Health Minister Christian Dubé stressed last June that plants would be planted in the parking lot to reduce environmental impact.
Petition link