After having endured major construction projects around the Berri-UQAM metro station for months, Latin Quarter merchants were only warned last week by the City that the intersection of Saint-Denis and Ontario streets will be closed at starting today, for at least two weeks.
According to the City, this work is necessary under this intersection, the busiest in the neighborhood, to ensure the repair of a very old sewer collector.
The repair of the Ontario collector, which dates from the end of the 19e century, was started several months ago west of rue Saint-Denis. According to the City, this work should extend its useful life by 50 years. The repair work must eventually continue as far as rue Atateken.
But for the Latin Quarter Commercial Development Corporation (SDC), being warned just a few days before the closure of one of the neighborhood’s most important intersections is the straw that broke the camel’s back.
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Businesses in the area had a lot on their minds when work began at the Saint-Denis and Ontario intersection. A construction site they only learned about last week.
Photo : Ivanoh Demers
This closure will, according to SDCsignificant impacts not only for local traffic, but especially for merchants in the sector who were barely beginning to recover from the post-pandemic drop in traffic.
Despite constant efforts to revitalize the Latin Quarter, which recorded an increase in traffic of 16.87% in December 2024 compared to 2023, this work risks slowing down economic recovery.
deplores the SDC.
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For the general director of the SDC Quartier Latin, Julien Vaillancourt Laliberté, the City cannot launch projects of this kind with a few days’ notice without offering compensation to merchants who are directly dependent on traffic in the sector.
Photo : Ivanoh Demers
We are working hard to revitalize the neighborhood, but the City is making it difficult for us with a lack of communication and support. It’s time for a change!
In order to avoid closures of businesses and restaurants, members of the SDC are asking the City of Montreal for compensation.
The SDC and its members demand that the City act in a coherent and transparent manner and that it put in place financial compensation for merchants and restaurateurs affected by major work
declares SDC in a press release.
Remember that in addition to the repair of the section of rue Saint-Denis between boulevard De Maisonneuve and rue Sainte-Catherine, completed in 2021, the Latin Quarter was then disrupted for months by major excavation work around the Berri-UQAM metro station to waterproof the underground structure affected by water infiltration.
To which are added several projects to repair the facades or buildings of the University of Quebec in Montreal in the sector.
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Aref Salem is leader of the official opposition and the Ensemble Montréal party.
Photo : Ivanoh Demers
The leader of the opposition at City Hall, Aref Salem, suspects the administration of Mayor Valérie Plante of deliberately break up its construction sites in the Latin Quarter to prevent traders from benefiting from the financial assistance to which they are entitled
.
Mr. Salem adds, citing safe sources
that the Plante administration also plans to pedestrianize Sainte-Catherine Street in the Village all year round, without having adequately consulted the SDC locale
.
