Town of Saint-Zotique spends $700,000 more than planned to dredge three canals

The Saint-Zotique municipal council has had to pay out an additional sum of nearly $300,000 as part of an out-of-court settlement reached in the case of the dredging of the mouths of canals S-2 (65th Avenue), S-3 (68th Avenue) and S-4 (81st Avenue). 

The information was revealed by Mayor Yvon Chiasson at the regular meeting held on Tuesday, October 17. "This year, we hired an engineering firm to oversee the removal and transportation of sediment from canals S-2, S-3 and S-4. In total, this operation was supposed to cost us $900,000, but in the end, we had to spend $1.7 million, or an additional $700,000, on this project. It was the first time we'd done this this year, and it didn't work out" he said at the public meeting. 

Mr. Chiasson went on to say that the dredging work had not been very effective. "In some canals, sediment has returned in almost the same quantity as before. We dug down five feet to remove it in some places, and now it's back up to three and a half feet." 

The out-of-court settlement with the engineering firm alone cost the Ville de Saint-Zotique $297,437.