Together with Vaudreuil-Dorion Mayor Guy Pilon and Mathieu Miljours, General Manager of the Vaudreuil-Soulanges Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Vaudreuil MNA Marie-Claude Nichols presented a petition on Tuesday, initiated by the Mères au Front de Vaudreuil-Soulanges organization, denouncing the government's decision to build a 5.7-hectare surface parking lot for the future Vaudreuil-Soulanges hospital.

This petition of 2,362 signatories, sponsored by the MNA, is one more argument to add to the strong regional protest.

In addition to Mères au Front, the organization behind the initiative, the Ville de Vaudreuil-Dorion, the MRC de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM), the Conseil régional de l'environnement de la Montérégie, the Union des municipalités du Québec and the Chambre de commerce et d'industrie de Vaudreuil-Soulanges have openly criticized the government's decision.

"The government needs to listen to this growing protest movement. Our region is standing up and speaking out until the government makes the only acceptable decision, which is to build a multi-storey parking lot. I invite the MNA for Soulanges, who is totally absent from the debate, as well as the minister responsible for the Montérégie region, to be spokespersons for the people they represent to their government," said the MNA for Vaudreuil.

The original plan for the new Vaudreuil-Soulanges hospital included the construction of an underground or multi-level parking garage with 1,869 spaces.

However, the CAQ government decided to go ahead with a surface parking lot covering 5.7 hectares of asphalt, in an agricultural zone. This parking lot would occupy 23% of the total surface area of the land that will house the future hospital, and would certainly become the region's biggest heat island.

According to Ms Nichols, the people of Vaudreuil-Soulange do not want to sacrifice their farmland to build a paved surface parking lot with 1,869 spaces, the equivalent of more than 5 soccer fields.

As Ms. Nichols has repeatedly demanded, the government must keep its promise to build an underground or multi-storey parking facility.

The government's obligation to set an example

For his part, Guy Pilon, mayor of Vaudreuil-Dorion, insisted that the government has a duty to set an example in the matter of the Vaudreuil-Soulanges hospital, and that it must listen to citizens.

For Mr. Pilon, the construction of a huge asphalt parking lot "is unacceptable for such a large-scale project, and goes against current municipal and provincial sustainable development policies, as well as the recommendations of the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ). Far from delaying construction or compromising the project, a parking deck would prevent the creation of one of the region's largest heat islands."

Like Mr. Pilon, Marie-Claude Nichols believes that the government has a duty to set an example when it comes to land use planning and environmental protection, "and it can't talk out of both sides of its mouth at the same time. It must play by the same rules it imposes on municipalities, especially since in this case, even though the municipality refused to grant a parking permit, the government went ahead anyway. Obviously, it's a question of consistency and respect."

"All too often, we come to the sad conclusion that decisions are always made on the basis of money. These are short-term decisions that do not take into account the cost of the services rendered to the environment in the long term. We demand the same political courage as the Montreal city council, which decided to devote its entire budget to the acquisition of Mount Royal, which, 153 years later, is still the lungs of the metropolis. What is this famous 3% worth today, compared to the benefits, over decades, of a great park or the preservation of agricultural land? Mères au front's main demand is that these decisions be scrutinized for their environmental impact on our children and grandchildren," said Mères au front Saint-Lazare.