Montreal’s new mayor may have campaigned on a plan to move the much-maligned e-race off the downtown streets next year - but the big question now is where will it go?
Construction of the Formula E track started in May last summer and the event blocked major streets until August.
Local residents and merchants complained about the impact on their neighbourhood, while drivers suffered yet another roadblock on streets already filled with traffic.
The city is obligated to host the event for two more years – and the Mayor Valerie Plante plans to move it.
It can't be moved, however, to Circuit Gilles Villeneuve because required repairs to the paddocks and track for the 2019 F1 race will start the day after the 2018 race ends.
One notion that has been floated is to hold the e-race in the Technopark in the Saint-Laurent borough.
With about 100 businesses and 7,000 employees, the Technopark is a sizeable area located next to Highway 40 and Trudeau Airport – with lots of streets and few residents.
The business cooperative there said it would be pleased to collaborate on hosting the race and that it would highlight its tech and research businesses.
One of Plante’s aides said they will look at the idea, but Saint-Laurent Borough Mayor Alan De Sousa – who ran under Equipe Coderre – said the Technopark is definitely not his idea, since the city and borough would have to pay for repaving the streets and installing the barriers.
