Ontario provokes pedestrian dissatisfaction of the street

Following last summer’s experience, the pedestrian return of Ontario Street in Montreal, recently announced and scheduled for the summer season, is provoking concerns in the Hochelaga district.

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With the ombudsman report [sur les aménagements urbains réalisés à l’été 2020], We thought Project Montreal would learn from past situations and mistakes, ”said Karen Bovin-Roy.

City Councilor for the Mercier – Hochelaga-Mysonnev borough, during the last municipal council of the city of Montreal, she spoke for the official opposition of the ensemble Montreal.

As a reminder, the ombudsman report, filed last December, analyzed a number of complaints about bicycle and pedestrian facilities, including Ontario Street, in the summer of 2020.

According to the Commercial Development Corporation (SDC) of Hochelaga-Mysonnev, the majority of traders in the artery are opposed to giving the action a full refund.

This indicates that only 6% of its members are in favor of the project in its current form. Most traders, however, are prepared for the partial pedestrian idea of ​​the street between Thursdays and Sundays, which allows for car congestion on weekdays.

“We were very disappointed with the way this happened. We always had good conversations with the borough, and then we thought we’re put ourselves aside there,” lamented Jimmy Vigniex, SDC general manager at Hochelaga-Mysonnev.

In February, City Montreal set up a $ 4 million financing program to promote 10 commercial arterial pedestrians in Montreal.

Luke Rabouin, who is responsible for economic and commercial development on the city of Montreal’s executive committee, emphasized that pedestrian-developed commercial streets by 2020 are better than none at all.

“We want to make sure that this year, traders are increasingly agreeing with the projects we will support. This is a criterion for program selection and access,” he explained.

This response exclaimed Karen Bovin-Roy. According to the electorate, traders have been trying to start negotiations with the borough since last October, but she denied that major shareholders were “leaving”.

For his part, the mayor of Mercierborough – Hochelaga-Mysonnev, Pierre Lessard-Blaise, said the project was appreciated by citizens in the summer of 2020, and suggested that they be positive.

“We’re really listening to traders,” he said. It is very important that we talk to each other. Sometimes, when announcing new projects, there can be some concerns and some misunderstandings ”.

At SDC, we made sure we were ready to move on. “We think it’s bad, but we’re not outraged. Its goal is to succeed in talking to each other and helping to put together a truly beautiful project this summer,” Mr Vignex said.

The public presentation of this project will take place on Monday 29th March.