Vaudreuil-Dorion Hospital: More than 2,300 voices speak out against more than 5 hectares of parking

Paving a plot of land larger than five football fields around the future Vaudreuil-Dorrien hospital to turn into a vast parking lot with about 1,900 spaces has left local elected officials, who once again asked Quebec to review its plans.

A petition including the names of more than 2,300 people opposing the parking project must be presented to the National Assembly on Tuesday by Vaudreuil independent member Marie-Claude Nicolas.

Last June, she and Vaudreuil-Dorrien’s mayor, Guy Pilon, went on a public outing to condemn abandoning the layered parking project, either underground or surface, in favor of traditional parking due to the economy.

status quo

Since then, nothing has changed. “They create a heat island of more than five hectares next to the hospital. […] We will go back 10 years, 15 years, with a “patch” of asphalt,” protested Mr Pilon in an interview with QMI Agency on the occasion of filing the petition.

Meyer was even more frustrated trying to deal with the Vaudreuil-Dorrien heat islands. Contractors must build underground parking lots, as the city planted 11,000 trees last year, he said as an example.

“We have reached the end of our rope in our actions. […] We tried to hold meetings with different ministers, regardless of who was involved,” the mayor added, lamenting only receiving feedback from the CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest.

The magistrate hopes the petition will persuade the government to change its plans, but is not hopeful. “It’s the government that runs it. He makes laws, breaks laws, changes laws. He does whatever he wants, and I don’t mean that in a negative way. […]. If he decides things aren’t moving, there’s not much that can be done about it,” he admits.

Initially estimated at $1.7 billion, the hospital project was re-estimated at $2.6 billion. In an effort to cut costs, the government decided to build a larger parking lot, saving between $50 and $80 million.

Last June, Health Minister Christian Dubey’s office emphasized planting trees in the parking lot to reduce the environmental impact.

Petition link