Trash-transfer battle

brewing in St-Paul

Under the Bourque administration's new garbage-export plan, less waste will go to the Miron landfill--pleasing angry St-Michel residents who have long put up with the trucks, the noise and the smell. But people in southwest Montreal are gearing up for their own big fight, saying they want no part of the same problems in their back yard.

Starting in November 1999 in Côte-St-Paul, the City wants to establish a transfer centre that would receive 88,000 tons of garbage annually from NDG, Côte-des-Neiges, downtown and the southwest, compress it into huge containers and ship it off-island to north-shore Lachenaie.

"If it's important for St-Michel people to get rid of it, then it's also important for us not to have it," says local resident Bernard Pilon. The district, which he contends already has a serious truck problem, would see 100 more trucks a week pass through the busy de l'Église­Angers intersection on their way to the St-Patrick street transfer centre.

Hopes for economic improvements may also be dashed. "Besides leading to serious nuisances, the project will create very few jobs and directly contradicts the efforts to revitalize the Lachine Canal area," says Pierre Richard, the assistant director of the RESO economic development corporation. Both Montreal and the federal government promised to kick in a total of $82 million for various touristic projects.

To oppose the project, a coalition of community and school groups is already circulating a petition. The coalition also sent a letter to all mayoral candidates demanding their position on the issue, and is holding a public assembly on October 20 at 7 pm at 5550 Angers (near de l'Église).

-Wayne Hiltz