The municipality of Nantes is demanding financial compensation from Ottawa for the losses that the bypass project will cause in Lac-Mégantic.
The Nantes municipal council will adopt a resolution to this effect Monday evening.
Dissatisfied with the responses obtained from Ottawa in the railway bypass file, the municipality is requesting financial compensation for the loss of natural environments and land revenue.
“We are going to ask for a little more than $30,000 per year, an amount which will have to be indexed over time,” indicated Mayor Daniel Gendron.
The initial agreement provided that Nantes would be compensated by financial aid for projects.
“We submitted projects 11 times, we were told “yes, no, maybe”, the people who process our requests constantly change and we have to start again,” said Mr. Gendron. It’s been going on for three years, we’ve waited long enough.”
In the resolution that they will adopt Tuesday evening, municipal officials will also demand that the amounts offered to expropriated people be increased, because the value of properties has exploded.
“Congratulations to the municipality of Nantes for this new attempt, but we have lost confidence in Transport Canada for a long time,” said Sylvain Côté, one of the owners who have still not accepted Ottawa’s offer. .
“I’m not for sale,” he said. If someone comes to me and offers me market value to buy, it will be a definite no. It would take an offer I can’t refuse to make me leave. So, that’s what I expect from the government.”
