In an open letter addressed to Prime Minister Legault and the members of his council of ministers, seven luminaries from the academic and cultural world are outraged to see the State on the verge of giving in, on the sly, with all “closed doors” , the spaces adjacent to the Grande Bibliothèque to erect “an enormous 315,000 volt electrical transformer station, a massive, high, dangerous industrial building, the presence of which will be the symbol of collective resignation”.
Lise Bissonnette, former director of the National Library and Archives of Quebec (BAnQ), the emeritus urban planner Gérard Beaudet, the architect Phyllis Lambert, founder of the Canadian Center for Architecture (CCA), the former Minister of Culture Christine St- Pierre, the playwright Michel Marc Bouchard, the science historian Yves Gingras and the emeritus archivist Carol Couture are of the opinion that this behemoth, erected opposite the Gare of Montreal’s coaches, will put a nail in the coffin where the Latin Quarter threatens to topple if this project is realized.
If Montreal moves forward with this project on this strategic site, it will be, they write, the only large city in the world “to inflict such a wound on itself”, which would become the symbol of “mediocrity”. It would then be impossible to think of reclassifying an already outraged sector.
This project, projected in the gardens adjoining the Grande Bibliothèque, appears to the signatories as an “absurdity”. They demand that the government of Quebec and Hydro-Québec renounce it.
“Our conviction is that they have not really studied the other sites,” says Lise Bissonnette in an interview, while emphasizing that the idea that everything must be erected within a perimeter of 500 meters from the old electrical station, as the state corporation asserts, does not hold up compared to what is done elsewhere, including in Montreal.
Parties in a hurry to act
The signatories expect opposition parties to act. According to Lise Bissonnette, the office of MP Manon Massé is, for its part, extremely committed to this issue. “When Mme Massé asked questions in the room, the minister [de l’Économie et de l’Énergie] Christine Fréchette answered the Hydro-Québec communication lines. I don’t believe that Mme Fréchette is really invested in this issue. »
Former president of the board of directors of UQAM and former director of DutyLise Bissonnette claims to have learned from the gang, like others, what was going on in this public space. “Several of us gathered around a table to discuss it. We are not trying to do the work for Hydro-Québec. It’s up to them to come up with a better solution, to find better scenarios. This project, in its current form, is unacceptable. »
The signatories find it paradoxical that the Quebec government has just adopted a national architecture and land use planning policy that aims to be “exemplary” when it is proposing such a project, in the heart of a historic district.
“How is it,” asks Lise Bissonnette, “that during all this time, Hydro-Québec has not been more transparent? Why did the Minister of Culture and Communications not react? Not to mention BAnQ and its board of directors, who have never said a word…” The signatories also ask “the Board and management of BAnQ, trustees of all of our heritage, to explain their direct collaboration in a calamity which will undermine their own mission”, it being understood that “the absolute silence of the institution is in itself a word”.
This giant transformer station project does not promise to correct an unfortunate situation, but to make it worse
Urban planning from the 1950s
Lise Bissonnette deplores that even the City of Montreal has not said a word. “They are in the shelters! Why were they attached to absolute secrecy regarding this transaction? Everyone knows it’s catastrophic. They know that everyone will soon realize the extent of the catastrophe. It’s as if they were afraid it would burst! »
For the emeritus urban planner Gérard Beaudet, the project simply does not make sense. “We are here in nostalgia for the authoritarian urban planning of the 1950s.”
The space where Hydro-Québec, with the collaboration of the City of Montreal, promises to set up its electrical transformation megastation is precisely one of those which has suffered the most from this approach, with this trench that Berri Street has become. , at the height of the coast at Baron. However, “this giant transformer station project does not promise to correct an unfortunate situation, but to make it worse,” maintains Gérard Beaudet.
What if, despite strong protests, the land was still ceded to Hydro-Québec? Gérard Beaudet believes that this would not be a lost battle. The town planner mentions the recent case of the pylons planned for the REM, in the heart of Montreal. They ended up being rejected by public pressure. He also recalls the Grondines project where, 25 years ago, Hydro-Québec wanted to see wires crossing the river. “They ended up burying them, in the face of public pressure. » In his opinion, the population will not allow this project to take place on this site in the Latin Quarter.
Reasons for protesting
“Hydro-Québec organized two croissant breakfasts to explain to a few individuals what we should think about it, but without giving us any documents, studies or facts,” recalls Lise Bissonnette. The media were also not admitted to these meetings. “Hydro-Québec never talks about the neighborhood,” she says. However, this is what should worry public authorities. “I am attached to the neighborhood, to UQAM, to the Grande Bibliothèque. I know it’s over for the neighborhood if they do that. It will be a monster. It will be catastrophic. […] When you have to express your opposition to such a matter, you must express it without hesitation. » If UQAM students are looking for reasons to demonstrate, there is a good one nearby, she adds.
For Gérard Beaudet, “the common good is sacrificed with this Hydro-Québec project which the City of Montreal nevertheless lets go”, in defiance, according to him, of urban planning rules. Yes, Valérie Plante could have been more clear-sighted in this matter, affirms Lise Bissonnette.
It is “incredible that public institutions play with the public interest on the basis of reasoning that is far from convincing,” adds Gérard Beaudet. It seems incredible to him that Hydro-Québec and the government would dare to claim that an architectural competition could, by magic, make the deal acceptable. “We are told, after working on the sly, that we are going to make it pretty! Do you remember the REM project in downtown? This is exactly what we were told: there will be an architectural “signature”, we were told! Let’s be serious: there are horrors that cannot be redeemed by architectural makeup. »
According to Gérard Beaudet, the City of Montreal did not do its job. “Yes, she should have seen that. » For him, as for the six other signatories of this manifesto to read in our pages today, this electrical substation of industrial dimensions “is very dangerous” for the future of the Latin Quarter and Montreal, to the extent that it the impasse on an overall vision. “Several consequences are not assessed at their fair value. » According to the signatories, however, “there is still time for spines to straighten out”.
