Martin C. Barry
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The Feb. 10 sitting of Rosemère town council saw the return of two town residents who repeated some allegations they previously made about a wetland located in Blainville they claim is endangered.
Problem not in Rosemère
It was not first time Benoit Beauchamp and Anick Plouffe of Grande Côte Rd. appealed to Rosemère mayor Eric Westram to intervene, although the mayor reminded them, as he had previously, that the matter doesn’t concern Rosemère since the wetland in question is located in Blainville.
“There seem to be people who want to destroy that wetland,” said Beauchamp, noting that the wetland in question, which is located above a former dumping site, acts as a natural filter that benefits surrounding communities such as Rosemère, but that it is under threat because of landfilling he alleges is still taking place.
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Federal and provincial
“The land you’re talking about is not on Rosemère’s territory,” said Westram, adding that he had previously counselled Beauchamp to get assistance on the matter from officials at higher levels of government such as the federal and provincial.
The mayor dismissed Beauchamp’s claims that the fate of the Blainville wetland could cause springtime flooding to be more extreme in Rosemère. The problem appears to be that as a former dump, the site’s eligibility for ecological protection isn’t clear under regulations of the Quebec Environment Ministry.
Has been to court
The status and use of the site, which is owned by a Blainville streetcleaning business, has also been the subject of court cases brought forward by Beauchamp and which got as far as the Supreme Court of Canada in recent years.
“I can take you on your word, but I cannot allow myself to say that my citizens could be in danger because of landfilling,” added the mayor.
During the regular business portion of the agenda, town council tabled a notice of motion of its intention to pass a $907,000 loan by-law probably next month to pay for the upgrade and repair of the bicycle path north of Autoroute 640, while also repairing part of the Bouthillier footbridge.
Recycling questions
Also during question period, longtime Rosemère resident Wendy Gurd questioned the mayor over the state of the town’s recycling services, given the negative news that has surfaced about the City of Montreal’s failing recycling system.
She wondered particularly about recyclables such as glass being broken in recycling bins and contaminating other recyclables. Mayor Westram pointed out that unlike many other recycling materials sorting centres, Rosemère and other members of the MRC do business with Tricentris which, he said, has specific contracts for recycled glass.
Under control, says mayor
“Unlike other triage centres, which unfortunately are undergoing certain difficulties, we are involved with a pilot project through which we will be able to maybe find solutions do deal with these types of problems,” he continued.
According to Councillor René Villeneuve, the provincial government’s new bottle and glass container policy should cover the situation in the next two years.
“In the meantime, they’re going to make a type of depot in different municipalities as pilot projects. For that matter, Rosemère will be offering to implement a small depot for deposit-refundable glass containers such as wine bottles.”