{"id":506,"date":"2008-01-23T23:08:50","date_gmt":"2008-01-24T04:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/?p=506"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:37:09","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:37:09","slug":"no-debate-on-the-notre-dame-highway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2008\/01\/23\/no-debate-on-the-notre-dame-highway\/","title":{"rendered":"No debate on the Notre Dame highway"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This story slipped through Spacing Montreal’s normally impenetrable news-fishing net, but I’ve managed to retrieve it. On Sunday, Bruno Bisson reported<\/a> in La Presse that last week’s consultations on the Notre Dame highway project failed to offer any chance for debate about the plan’s fundamentals. No specific details were offered and residents did not have a chance to engage with officials about their concerns. I’ll quote his article at length because it’s pretty revealing:<\/p>\n

Mercredi dernier, le minist\u00e8re des Transports du Qu\u00e9bec (MTQ) et la Ville de Montr\u00e9al recevaient la population locale \u00e0 la Maison de la culture Mercier pour conna\u00eetre son opinion au sujet de la piste cyclable, de l’am\u00e9nagement s\u00e9curitaire des parcs et de la couleur des murs antibruit. En granit gris fonc\u00e9, avec motif de briques rouges ou en mati\u00e8re translucide?<\/p>\n

La tenue de cette consultation d\u00e9coule d’un d\u00e9cret adopt\u00e9 en 2002 par le gouvernement du Qu\u00e9bec pour favoriser la construction d’un \u00abboulevard urbain\u00bb en prolongement de l’autoroute Ville-Marie, qui s’\u00e9tend sur neuf kilom\u00e8tres entre le pont Jacques-Cartier et l’autoroute 25.<\/p>\n

Ce d\u00e9cret posait 19 conditions au minist\u00e8re des Transports et \u00e0 la Ville de Montr\u00e9al pour l’obtention des permis de construction. La tenue de cette consultation en est une. Le d\u00e9cret ne pr\u00e9cisait toutefois pas la formule \u00e0 privil\u00e9gier pour les consultations. Celle pr\u00e9conis\u00e9e par la firme priv\u00e9e Convercit\u00e9, qui organise cette consultation, est pour le moins originale.<\/p>\n

En plus de fournir tr\u00e8s peu d’informations – ni \u00e9tudes ni analyses – sur l’augmentation du d\u00e9bit de circulation, du niveau de bruit ou de la pollution atmosph\u00e9rique, la formule de la consultation n’offre aucune possibilit\u00e9 de d\u00e9bats ou d’interactions avec les divers sp\u00e9cialistes qui ont particip\u00e9 \u00e0 la conception de ce projet.<\/p>\n

Le caract\u00e8re tr\u00e8s limit\u00e9 de ces consultations, qui concernent davantage les questions d’am\u00e9nagement entourant l’infrastructure plut\u00f4t que les caract\u00e9ristiques du projet routier lui-m\u00eame, n’a toutefois pas emp\u00each\u00e9 une centaine de personnes de questionner l’ensemble du concept propos\u00e9 par le MTQ et la Ville de Montr\u00e9al, a constat\u00e9 La Presse au cours de cette assembl\u00e9e publique.<\/p>\n

(…)<\/p>\n

De nombreux experts du MTQ et de la Ville \u00e9taient sur les lieux. Mais ils ne s’adressaient jamais directement aux gens. Lorsque surgissait une question d’ordre technique (par exemple: comment fera-t-on pour acc\u00e9der \u00e0 l’ancienne Tonnellerie, un monument patrimonial qui sera r\u00e9am\u00e9nag\u00e9 au sud du futur boulevard?), l’animateur de la table brandissait un carton jaune.<\/p>\n

Ce signal alertait aussit\u00f4t un des h\u00f4tes de la consultation – qui assistaient aux discussions en retrait -, qui prenait alors copie \u00e9crite de la question et disparaissait dans une salle voisine, avant de revenir avec une r\u00e9ponse \u00e9crite, lue \u00e0 la table par l’animateur, et qui retrouvait ensuite les notes du secr\u00e9taire. Aucune copie de la r\u00e9ponse \u00e9crite n’\u00e9tait fournie \u00e0 la table.<\/p>\n

Si, au fil des th\u00e8mes et des points de discussion, les participants jouent volontiers le jeu de la discussion, pos\u00e9ment et sans \u00e9clat de voix, aucun d’entre eux n’a \u00e9mis le moindre commentaire positif \u00e0 l’\u00e9gard du projet en une heure et demie de rencontre. Des coups de sonde lanc\u00e9s par La Presse aupr\u00e8s de participants aux autres tables ont r\u00e9v\u00e9l\u00e9 la m\u00eame insatisfaction g\u00e9n\u00e9rale.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As you’ll recall, Montreal and the province want to convert Notre Dame St. from downtown to Highway 25 into an “urban boulevard.”<\/a> Judging by the plans, though, it bears more resemblance to a limited-access urban expressway. Whether this is a good thing or not is up for debate, and that’s exactly the point — shouldn’t there be some kind of public debate about this? <\/p>\n

A number of residents have expressed their opposition to the project and have even presented an alternate vision<\/a> that would place greater emphasis on re-integrating Notre Dame into its adjacent neighbourhoods. At the very least, their idea should be taken into account by the municipal and provincial governments. Otherwise, what’s the point of even consulting the public in the first place?<\/p>\n

Photo by S\u00e9bastien Yaher<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This story slipped through Spacing Montreal’s normally impenetrable news-fishing net, but I’ve managed to retrieve it. On Sunday, Bruno Bisson reported in La Presse that last week’s consultations on the Notre Dame highway project failed to offer any chance for debate about the plan’s fundamentals. No specific details were offered and residents did not haveContinue reading “No debate on the Notre Dame highway”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7839,7840,31,7842],"tags":[1768,89,8,9,67,1769,125,5,292,1767,876],"class_list":["post-506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-neighbourhoods","category-politics","category-traffic","category-urban-design","tag-bruno-bisson","tag-centre-sud","tag-city-hall","tag-development","tag-hochelaga-maisonneuve","tag-le-ministere-des-transports-du-quebec","tag-montreal","tag-planning","tag-quebec","tag-sebastien-yaher","tag-this"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNo debate on the Notre Dame highway - Spacing Montreal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2008\/01\/23\/no-debate-on-the-notre-dame-highway\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"No debate on the Notre Dame highway - Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This story slipped through Spacing Montreal’s normally impenetrable news-fishing net, but I’ve managed to retrieve it. On Sunday, Bruno Bisson reported in La Presse that last week’s consultations on the Notre Dame highway project failed to offer any chance for debate about the plan’s fundamentals. 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