Saint-Leonard residents call for flood action at city hall

Hundreds of residents of Montreal’s Saint-Leonard came to City Hall Monday evening, a few weeks after their homes were flooded during a severe thunderstorm.

In a packed room, They called on authorities do more to flood-proof the area.

“The politicians are not addressing the issues of why we have sewerage back up every storm that we have, whether it’s a big storm, a medium storm, or a horrific storm,” said Mark Anthony Cerello, Saint-Leonard resident.

“I’m a real estate broker for the last 28 and a half years, so I know the territory quite well,” said Saint-Leonard resident Mario Conte. “The area around Jean-Talon-Langelier, Du Mesnil, and De Lotbinière, so on and so forth, was an area that was flooding quite often back then. And the city fixed it. What did they do? There’s Park Garibaldi right around the corner. They built a basin, a water retention basin right there. And magic, no more floods. So why can’t they do a similar thing there?”

On July 13, Montreal was hit with 70 to 100 millimeters of rain. Many saw their basements inundated with water, and it wasn’t their first time.

“Many of my friends that you will see here tonight have been flooded. And on Belmont Street in Saint-Leonard, you had nine feet of water. It’s not possible that in our society, in a democracy like where we live, where we’re charging people 10,000, 12,000, $16,000 municipal taxes, that they keep lying to the general population of Saint-Leonard and other parts, that it’s the green scam. It’s the environment. No, it’s bad administration. It’s overreach, spending on bike paths, spending $500 million on the wrong things,” added Cerello.

Residents say flooding is more than an inconvenience. They say it’s a serious and costly threat to their health, their families and their property values. They are calling for real solutions like better drainage, proactive planning, and accountability.

“I sympathize with the citizens,” said city councillor for Saint-Leonard West, Dominic Perri. “I intervened so many times at the Council in Montreal telling the administration of Projet Montréal that there is a problem here in Saint-Leonard with the sewers.”

“There was a study made, a study made by CIMA+ that says where the problem is. It is the main water collector on the Langellier is two to five times smaller than what it should be. And the studies there, I intervened again at the city council in Montreal to tell M adame Plante and Projet Montréal administration that the work needs to be done. But although I was able to get $151 million reserved, Madame Plante and Projet Montréal administration, they think that it can wait for another five years. This is absolutely unacceptable,” added Perri.