Saint-Leonard residents call for permanent solution to flooding after borough sandbags homes
Posted July 13, 2026 5:00 pm.
Last Updated July 13, 2026 5:53 pm.
Several Saint-Leonard residents are calling for long-term solutions to flooding from heavy summer rains after the borough installed sandbags around some homes.
Over the weekend, the borough sandbagged a few residential buildings on Belmont Street. But the residents would rather have catch basins in nearby parks or in the streets.
“This is a temporary solution, but I don’t think it’s a good solution because first of all the owners can no longer use their driveways,” said Mario Napolitano.
Last week at the borough council meeting, residents came together to express their continued frustration with officials and to demand flood protection measures amid forecasts of heavy rain this summer.
Several basement suites along on Belmont street had major flooding in August 2024 and again in July 2025 that caused significant water damage.
The City of Montreal installed sandbags for the homes that were hit by the floods. Anyone else on the street wanting sandbags can now have them delivered, but they have to install them themselves.
“I am an old person, I am not able to carry 30 kilogram bags of sand to place here,” said Mila Marunych, who lives on Belmont Street.
Saint-Leonard borough Mayor Dominic Perri says the sandbags are just a temporary solution. The long-term solution to prevent flooding will be the expansion of the Langelier water collector, he said.
“We have plans to know where the problem is but we have to make the plans to construct, to build and those are not done. Of course then we have to go to bids and that takes some time so I cannot give you a date but I can tell you that it will not be next year or the year after. I can tell you that,” said Perri.
The lack of a permanent solution in place in the next few years means that it poses challenges to rent out basement suites or sell residences on that stretch of Belmont.
“We can’t sell the house because, you have to say, the house is always flooded,” said Marunych.
The borough has already built a sponge park and planted more than 1,000 trees over the past five years to prevent flooding. The City of Monteal has created a program called RénoPlex to help waterproof homes, added the borough mayor.
“If the people want to install waterproof garage doors, there are (subsidies). We have organized sessions, information sessions for citizens to come and get the right information to know what to do by professionals, and a quick solution is send bags that some people have asked and we decided to give to them,” said Perri.
