Saint-Leonard residents who have been dealing with flooding for years are once again calling on the government to update its anti-flooding infrastructure now that spring is around the corner.
Some say officials have failed to deliver on a key campaign promise by Soraya Martinez Ferrada and the new Ensemble Montréal administration.
“Before the election, we were told that they were in opposition and their hands were tied,” said Mario Napolitano, a member of a Saint-Leonard citizens’ committee. “Well, now we voted them in and we want action.”
Saint-Leonard maintenance worker Nick Argento says he starts preparing for the worst every time rain is in the forecast.
“You’re getting all contaminated water into your local,” Argento explained. “You have to wait until it goes down and then after you have to clean everything out.
“It’ll come (from) like the two toilets that are downstairs and they start overflowing.”
He says his building floods whenever the borough is hit with a downpour, including last summer, when Saint-Leonard was pummeled with 100 millimetres of rain.
“I think the city has to enlarge those pipes because they can’t take the flow of the rainfall anymore,” Argento said.
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The flooding in Saint-Leonard has been so bad that residents have formed a citizens’ committee, pushing the borough to do more to protect the community during storms.
They brought those concerns to Monday night’s council meeting.
“Going to the meeting last night, it really doesn’t seem we’re going to get that help,” said Tina Di Serio, a member of the committee.
The borough is encouraging homeowners to apply for Montreal’s RénoPlex renovation subsidy, which can help cover the cost of installing waterproof garage doors.
But residents say that solution misses the real problem.
“That’s a false solution because even if you enforce the doors, the water comes up through the toilet bowls,” Napolitano said.
“These part-time, band-aid solutions are not what we want.”
Saint-Leonard borough mayor Dominic Perri says major water infrastructure upgrades are handled by the City of Montreal, not individual boroughs.
He says part of the issue is that the borough’s water collectors are outdated and too small to handle heavier rainfall linked to climate change.
“Water is the responsibility of the City of Montreal; they have the budget for that,” Perri said.
Now that there’s a new administration in town, Perri says there may finally be room in the central budget to tackle the problem, though he warns residents will have to be patient.
“That is a very costly project and it will take time,” the borough mayor said. “Imagine Langelier Boulevard opened from the sidewalk.”
“I don’t care,” countered Di Serio. “It’s an emergency, and it needs to be rectified now. Not tomorrow, now.”
With more rain coming Wednesday – though some of that will turn into freezing rain – residents say they can’t wait any longer.
“They use this to get elected, and they used it in their campaign, and they promised that they were going to help the citizens,” Di Serio said.
