Mayor Denis Coderre accepted a petition on Tuesday bearing 90,000 names demanding the city stop a proposed plan that would see 8 billion litres of raw sewage dumped in the St. Lawrence.
The petition was presented at a council meeting in the Ville Marie borough, where Coderre also serves as mayor.
“I'm impressed of how many, of all these people was concerned about the waste for the river and I'm pretty happy for that,” said Xavier Nonnenmacher, who started the petition. “I live in Montreal, I love Montreal and the river is the biggest part of Quebec and east of Canada.”
Coderre, however, was unmoved.
“I salute the citizen who, you know, they don’t like it and they sign a petition,” he said. “Ok, but the facts are the same.”
The city has said it has no choice due to the city having to relocate a snow dump that is part of the soon-to-be-destroyed Bonaventure expressway. To shut down the snow dump, they must close a waste-water collector until it can be relocated, which would take about a week.
The plan has been grudgingly approved by the environment ministry.
Environment Canada officials met with city officials on Friday and had earlier denied authorization but on Tuesday said further evaluation is needed before it can formally approve or disapprove of the plan.
“Given the potential for adverse impact on aquatic life, Environment Canada will take the time needed to gather the necessary information and to evaluate the proposed course of action,” said Environment Canada in a statement.
Federal intergovernmental affairs minister Denis Lebel is expected to announce Environment Canada's final position at 2:45 p.m. Wednesday.
