Latest news with #LucRabouin
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Crumbling Montreal building slated for demolition forces 2nd evacuation this year
Having just moved into his new apartment in June, Charles Emond had barely finished unpacking his belongings when he was told by the Montreal fire department last Friday to pack up and get out. He said he and the other tenants were told they had 15 minutes to leave the building at 5980-5982 Park Ave. in Montreal's Plateau–Mont-Royal borough. "It was my first apartment with my girlfriend, so it was something special," he said on Monday. "The last three or four days have been the most stressful of my life." Emond was part of the latest round of tenants forced to evacuate their homes over the past four months, all due to a crumbling structure sitting adjacent to them. Part of the exterior wall of the derelict building at 5986-5992 Park Ave. collapsed in March, forcing the tenants living in the building next door to the left out of their homes. Last Friday, Montreal firefighters responded to a call just after 2 p.m. after someone noticed bricks falling off the crumbling building's opposite wall, and ordered the evacuation of Emond's building — next door to the right — due to the "imminent risk of a collapse," according to Service de sécurité incendie de Montréal (SIM) spokesperson Guy Lapointe. With the two buildings now sitting empty, Plateau–Mont-Royal borough mayor Luc Rabouin says it's a matter of weeks before the derelict building sandwiched between them finally comes down. But with little faith in the borough's ability or willingness to accommodate tenants given the experience of those two doors down, Emond and his partner decided to break their lease and move into another apartment offered to them by their landlord. Displaced tenants from the evacuation Friday were under the care of the Red Cross for three days. Those that are still unhoused are now being accompanied by the Office municipal d'habitation de Montréal. It can't, however, provide subsidized units to tenants whose revenue is too high, it said in a statement. 'A landlord who is playing cat and mouse' During a borough council meeting Monday, Rabouin said the borough will carry out the demolition of the building at 5986-5992 Park Ave. if its owners don't, adding that an engineering firm is expected to provide a plan by the end of the week. "We're dealing with a landlord who is playing cat and mouse with us, who is very difficult to reach, who gives us signs of good intentions that ultimately don't come true," he said. The building administrators, Daniel Lalonde and Jonathan Pigeon, had committed to demolishing the property on June 2, according to Rabouin. That was after the borough says it had to hire a private investigator to serve them a demolition order. Reached by CBC on Tuesday, Pigeon says he and his partner were not negligent and that there was no private investigator. He said his office had simply changed addresses and that he signed the borough's documents electronically. He blames the borough for the delay. "Everyone is in communication, there was never a cat and mouse [game], the demolition process is going well, the contract has already been awarded," he wrote in French in a text message to CBC. He said the demolition will take place after preparations for the site are complete, which is "supposed to happen shortly." LI In April 2023, an engineer assessed the building for Habitat 237 Grande-Île S.E.N.C., the company owned by Pigeon and Lalonde to which the building is registered. The building was already vacant at that point following a fire, according to the report, which CBC obtained through an access to information request. The report detailed unstable and degraded foundation walls and detached brick cladding, among other concerns. "We demand that this building be unoccupied and demolished as quickly as possible in accordance with city requirements," it concluded. "Major intervention on a portion of the existing structure is not acceptable or feasible." A month earlier, the borough had issued a notice to the owners flagging a couple building maintenance infractions. It cited its right to carry out the building's demolition at the owners' expense if they did not take the appropriate steps to secure the structure. Asked in May 2025 why the borough hadn't taken action, a spokesperson said intervening to demolish a building is an "exceptional step" that the borough had never taken before. Ian Cucurull, the owner of the building that was evacuated Friday, says he was lodging complaints to the city about the instability of the adjacent building as far back as 2021. "I complained to everyone," he said. "Everyone was in agreement that the bowing of the wall was very pronounced, dangerous even….We're now in 2025 and still, the building is still standing. I don't understand." Pigeon and Lalonde acquired the building in 2021 and began the process to obtain a demolition permit that same year, according to Pigeon. "We never abandoned the procedures, the city asked for new things every time to bring the building down," he said. The city has previously said the owners first applied for a demolition permit in 2023 and failed to follow up on the process when asked for additional documents. Cucurull says that up until recently, the borough had communicated with him that they were still considering issuing a call for tender for the demolition contract — a process that usually takes months. Rabouin said Monday that if the borough does end up carrying out the demolition, it will bypass that process to speed things up. "There was a wall that almost killed a tenant … it's not a joke," said Cucurull, referring to the partial collapse in March. "It's absolutely crazy and you can't demolish that building. I can't demolish that building. Only the city can do it." WATCH | Partial collapse of precarious building causes 1st emergency evacuation in March: Emond says he struggles to understand why it's taken the landlords so long to act. In the end, he chalks it up to them ultimately not caring about the impact the ordeal has had on vulnerable renters. Pigeon says it is due in part to the city recommending a contractor that was too expensive. Still, Emond says the harm done is significant. "In my perspective, I think it's just another building for them. It's just another investment for them. They don't really care. Like if they care, they would have done something in March," he said.
CBC
09-07-2025
- General
- CBC
Crumbling Montreal building slated for demolition forces 2nd evacuation this year
Having just moved into his new apartment in June, Charles Emond had barely finished unpacking his belongings when he was told by the Montreal fire department last Friday to pack up and get out. He said he and the other tenants were told they had 15 minutes to leave the building at 5980-5982 Park Ave. in Montreal's Plateau–Mont-Royal borough. "It was my first apartment with my girlfriend, so it was something special," he said on Monday. "The last three or four days have been the most stressful of my life." Emond was part of the latest round of tenants forced to evacuate their homes over the past four months, all due to a crumbling structure sitting adjacent to them. Part of the exterior wall of the derelict building at 5986-5992 Park Ave. collapsed in March, forcing the tenants living in the building next door to the left out of their homes. Last Friday, Montreal firefighters responded to a call just after 2 p.m. after someone noticed bricks falling off the crumbling building's opposite wall, and ordered the evacuation of Emond's building — next door to the right — due to the "imminent risk of a collapse," according to Service de sécurité incendie de Montréal (SIM) spokesperson Guy Lapointe. With the two buildings now sitting empty, Plateau–Mont-Royal borough mayor Luc Rabouin says it's a matter of weeks before the derelict building sandwiched between them finally comes down. But with little faith in the borough's ability or willingness to accommodate tenants given the experience of those two doors down, Emond and his partner decided to break their lease and move into another apartment offered to them by their landlord. Displaced tenants from the evacuation Friday were under the care of the Red Cross for three days. Those that are still unhoused are now being accompanied by the Office municipal d'habitation de Montréal. It can't, however, provide subsidized units to tenants whose revenue is too high, it said in a statement. 'A landlord who is playing cat and mouse' During a borough council meeting Monday, Rabouin said the borough will carry out the demolition of the building at 5986-5992 Park Ave. if its owners don't, adding that an engineering firm is expected to provide a plan by the end of the week. "We're dealing with a landlord who is playing cat and mouse with us, who is very difficult to reach, who gives us signs of good intentions that ultimately don't come true," he said. The building administrators, Daniel Lalonde and Jonathan Pigeon, had committed to demolishing the property on June 2, according to Rabouin. That was after the borough says it had to hire a private investigator to serve them a demolition order. Reached by CBC on Tuesday, Pigeon says he and his partner were not negligent and that there was no private investigator. He said his office had simply changed addresses and that he signed the borough's documents electronically. He blames the borough for the delay. "Everyone is in communication, there was never a cat and mouse [game], the demolition process is going well, the contract has already been awarded," he wrote in French in a text message to CBC. He said the demolition will take place after preparations for the site are complete, which is "supposed to happen shortly." Building should have come down in 2023: engineer's report In April 2023, an engineer assessed the building for Habitat 237 Grande-Île S.E.N.C., the company owned by Pigeon and Lalonde to which the building is registered. The building was already vacant at that point following a fire, according to the report, which CBC obtained through an access to information request. The report detailed unstable and degraded foundation walls and detached brick cladding, among other concerns. "We demand that this building be unoccupied and demolished as quickly as possible in accordance with city requirements," it concluded. "Major intervention on a portion of the existing structure is not acceptable or feasible." A month earlier, the borough had issued a notice to the owners flagging a couple building maintenance infractions. It cited its right to carry out the building's demolition at the owners' expense if they did not take the appropriate steps to secure the structure. Asked in May 2025 why the borough hadn't taken action, a spokesperson said intervening to demolish a building is an "exceptional step" that the borough had never taken before. Ian Cucurull, the owner of the building that was evacuated Friday, says he was lodging complaints to the city about the instability of the adjacent building as far back as 2021. "I complained to everyone," he said. "Everyone was in agreement that the bowing of the wall was very pronounced, dangerous even….We're now in 2025 and still, the building is still standing. I don't understand." Pigeon and Lalonde acquired the building in 2021 and began the process to obtain a demolition permit that same year, according to Pigeon. "We never abandoned the procedures, the city asked for new things every time to bring the building down," he said. The city has previously said the owners first applied for a demolition permit in 2023 and failed to follow up on the process when asked for additional documents. Borough says it will bypass call for tender process Cucurull says that up until recently, the borough had communicated with him that they were still considering issuing a call for tender for the demolition contract — a process that usually takes months. Rabouin said Monday that if the borough does end up carrying out the demolition, it will bypass that process to speed things up. "There was a wall that almost killed a tenant … it's not a joke," said Cucurull, referring to the partial collapse in March. "It's absolutely crazy and you can't demolish that building. I can't demolish that building. Only the city can do it." WATCH | Partial collapse of precarious building causes 1st emergency evacuation in March: These Montreal tenants were forced out after partial collapse of next door building 4 months ago Duration 2:14 Nearly a week after the building next to theirs partially collapsed, these displaced Montreal tenants still have no news of when they'll be able to return home. They're calling on the city to take action. Emond says he struggles to understand why it's taken the landlords so long to act. In the end, he chalks it up to them ultimately not caring about the impact the ordeal has had on vulnerable renters. Pigeon says it is due in part to the city recommending a contractor that was too expensive. Still, Emond says the harm done is significant.
CBC
21-06-2025
- Politics
- CBC
After 4 years away, Cathy Wong hopes to return to Montreal city council
Former Montreal city council speaker, Cathy Wong is seeking to replace Coun. Luc Rabouin as borough mayor for Plateau-Mont-Royal in the next election — four years after she exited municipal politics. Wong will run as a candidate with Projet Montréal while Rabouin vies for the city mayor's office in November. Wong, who represented the Peter-McGill district in downtown Montreal from 2017 until 2021, said she did not know she would be coming back when she chose not to seek re-election to prioritize her family. "It's really since I would say December, after the American elections but also after a lot of different crises — climate crisis, social crisis, democratic crisis — that I felt the need to come back to be more involved in building policies that are feminist, that are inclusive, and that are green," she said. "In the last six months, every time I was opening the news, I felt so much anger, felt powerless," she said, adding that it created a feeling of wanting to be involved. If elected, Wong says she'd like to work to improve accessibility in the Plateau-Mont-Royal focusing on traffic-calming and street safety measures, housing and increasing universal accessibility. She moved to the borough in 2021 and lives there with her family. For the last four years she's been working as the vice-president of Telefilm Canada. Wong was first elected as a member of Ensemble Montréal in 2017, becoming the first elected official of Chinese descent at city hall. She was named speaker that same year, making her the first woman to hold the job in Montreal. She quit her party to sit as an independent and later joined Projet Montréal in 2019. She also became the first executive committee member in charge of fighting racism and discrimination. "I believe that the city has advanced in terms of inclusivity and in terms of accessibility but of course there's still work to be done," she said. "Today I'm running for mayor of a borough where I believe that there is still so many opportunities to make our borough more accessible, more inclusive, and this is the work I want to focus on."
CTV News
16-06-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Condo towers to go up around Montreal heritage building in the Plateau
The former site of the Institute for Deaf-Mute Girls in Montreal's Plateau will be redeveloped into housing. Quebec and the City of Montreal have chosen a developer to transform the long-vacant former home of the Montreal Institute for Deaf-Mute Girls into housing. The massive heritage building that sits between Berri and Saint-Denis streets, between Cherrier and Roy streets in the Plateau, has been sitting empty for a decade, and the province asked developers to come up with ideas for what to do with the space. Play Heritage building in Montreal's Plateau to be developed into housing The former site of the Institute for Deaf-Mute Girls in Montreal's Plateau will be redeveloped into housing. Residia will preserve the original building and surround it with towers of up to 25 storeys high. 'I wanted this process to mobilize all partners around a common vision: to meet urgent housing needs while promoting inclusive, sustainable and heritage-friendly urban development,' said Housing Minister France-Élaine Duranceau. 'This is concrete proof of what can be achieved when we bring together local forces around a common vision to increase the supply of non-profit housing.' When finished, the site will have more than 800 residential units, several of which will be reserved for low-income housing. 'It's a very intelligent project and an ambitious project because we have different challenges,' said Projet Montreal leader Luc Rabouin. 'We want to preserve this heritage building, that is a challenge in itself, but we also want to develop housing for low-income people, social housing ... To be able to conjugate these challenges, we need to offer density.' A public consultation will follow, and development is set to begin in spring 2026. 'The proposals received were evaluated according to criteria that are important to Montrealers and our government, including the integration of housing, the enhancement of built heritage and harmonization with the existing urban fabric,' said Quebec Infrastructure Minister Jonatan Julien. The institute was relocated to the Berri Street location in 1864 and operated until it was shut down in 1975. It was then home to the Agence de la santé et des services sociaux de Montréal from 1979 to 2015.
Montreal Gazette
26-05-2025
- Business
- Montreal Gazette
Montreal ‘proud of our pedestrian streets,' Luc Rabouin says
Montreal's summer pedestrian streets are back for 2025, with some already open for the season. This year's slate is almost identical to the 2024 project, with no new additions, though Plaza St-Hubert will remain open to cars after its pedestrianization plan was scrapped in February. Last September, the city committed to fund summer pedestrian streets for three more years, cementing a framework that keeps cars off some commercial streets with the support of local commercial development corporations (CDCs). While the city dropped the Plaza St-Hubert plan after 60 per cent of local business owners voted against it, Plateau-Mont-Royal borough mayor Luc Rabouin maintained that the remaining streets still enjoy widespread support. 'No commercial street tried pedestrianization and didn't decide to redo it, except for one,' said Rabouin, who also sits on the city's executive committee. He called Plaza St-Hubert 'the exception that proves the rule.' Four years after the project began, 'we are now proud of our pedestrian streets,' Rabouin said. 'We're no longer asking ourselves whether it works or not. It works.' Nine streets are slated for pedestrianization this summer: Mont-Royal Ave. between St-Laurent Blvd. and St-Denis St. from May 26 until Oct. 16 and between St-Denis St. and De Lorimier Ave. from May 26 until Sept. 4. Duluth Ave. E. between St-Laurent Blvd. and St-Hubert St. from June 16 to Oct. 16. Wellington St. between 6th Ave. and Regina St. from June 2 to Sept. 19. Ste-Catherine St. E. between St-Hubert St. and Papineau Ave. and a short stretch of St-Christophe St. between Ste-Catherine St. E. and 1278 St-Christophe St. from May 15 to Oct. 14. St-Denis St. between Sherbrooke and Ste-Catherine Sts. from June 14 to Sept. 15. Émery St. between Sanguinet and St-Denis Sts. from June 14 to Sept. 15. Ontario St. E. between Pie-IX Blvd. and Darling St. from June 16 to Sept. 12. Bernard Ave. W. between Wiseman St. and Bloomfield St. from May 24 to Sept. 21. De Castelnau St. E. between St-Denis St. and de Gaspé Ave. from May 12 to Nov. 7. 'A pedestrian street is a lot more attractive than a street with constant intense traffic,' Rabouin said at a Villeray press conference held on the recently pedestrianized de Castelnau St. E. That street will see its temporary pedestrianization last the longest, running into November. 'You'll be able to celebrate Halloween with us,' said Villeray—Saint-Michel—Parc-Extension borough mayor Laurence Lavigne. Villeray CDC general director Louis Vaillancourt was optimistic, telling The Gazette the 2024 rendition of the project had boosted business for the merchants he represents. 'This is a lot of fun for the citizens, but my mission is to make money for my people,' he said. Claire, who manages the de Castelnau St. Épicerie Loco, a boutique grocery store, was also happy pedestrianization would return. She declined to provide her last name. The store takes advantage of the pedestrian street to offer tastings to passersby, she said. 'There are a lot of events in the street, so people are passing by, they see that the door is open, they do the tastings, it attracts a lot of people,' she said. 'We're very happy with that.' Restaurant owner Rabih Rouhana, who runs Comptoir Sainte-Cécile, said he is expecting to see an increase in customers. Restaurants tend to benefit the most from pedestrian projects, said Sébastien Ridoin, the general director of Montreal's CDC association. 'Obviously terrasses on the streets help them,' he said. But the projects only work when businesses are onside, Rabouin said, adding he was under no illusion that summer pedestrian streets work in every instance. 'It's not a recipe that we should apply to every commercial street. It's a recipe that works in certain cases.' In the short term, permanent pedestrianization remains out of reach, he said. 'We are always ready to discuss the most ambitious thing we can do,' Rabouin said, but most business owners want the pedestrianization to remain temporary. This story was originally published May 26, 2025 at 5:02 PM.
