Montreal mustard maker still waiting for city's help after water main break

The Aug. 16 water main break on René-Lévesque Boulevard wiped out most of the inventory of La Morin, an award-winning specialty mustard company founded by Julien Morin several years ago.

"It’s about $300,000 in losses," he said. "It seems little, but for us, $300,000 in losses, it’s very big for a small company."

In the months since, he’s been forced to relocate his business but is still waiting for answers from the city and compensation.

"I don't think it's normal in 2024 that the water main break and citizens are impacted, and small businesses are impacted to the point that they might close. And we're still three months later and we did not hear about anyone taking the responsibility," he said.

He said it took him nearly 40 hours to fill out all the paperwork the city of Montreal requires to make a claim, and although they have acknowledged the claim there has been no further response.

The city did not respond to CTV News's request for comment.

Morin said he’s had to foot the bill to get his production line up and running again, but they are still only producing a portion of what they were able to do at their previous location.

He said fortunately he was able to keep his staff employed but needs help to keep his business afloat.

"Right now, we're operating at the bare minimum just to keep our contracts alive. It's a challenging time. We're doing everything we can to go through this," he said.