COP15 in Montreal | The Ville-Marie tunnel will remain open, Plante says

Mayor Valéry Plante promises that the Ville-Marie tunnel, which runs under the city of Montreal and the Palais des Congrès, will be closed during COP15 between December 7 and 19, despite what opposition leader Aref said at the town hall. Salem. Quebec and the SPVM confirm that the infrastructure will remain open.

Isabelle Ducasse
Pres

Henri Ouellet-Vezina
Pres

However, during the municipal council meeting on Tuesday morning, Mr. Salem confirmed. “I can tell you that the RCMP have requested two security zones in the Palais area [des congrès]Two areas that affect residents who live nearby,” said the president of Ensemble Montreal.

He accused the plant management of lack of transparency by refusing to inform the public about the closure of the tunnel.

“We don’t hide information,” replied the Montreal mayor. “We are working on a global project and when we have all the information, we will share it in time and place. »

He points out that the City is working with the RCMP, the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) and the Service de police de la Ville de Montreal (SPVM) on security issues surrounding this international conference. M^me Plante also noted that 30,000 people attended the event and said Montreal was proud to host it.

“It’s definitely going to shake up the lives of Montrealers, and Montrealers love this event because climate change is happening right now,” said Benoit Dorais, vice-president of the executive committee.

Aref Salem was accused of being “irresponsible” by Alain Vaillancourt, head of public safety at the executive committee, as he took to Twitter to confirm the closure of the Ville-Marie tunnel.

“Less is more risk”

The 15th^e The Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) will be held from December 7 to 19 at the Palais des Congresses, with representatives from 185 countries including many heads of state requiring heavy police protection. .

Documents provided to elected municipal officials mention “a high risk of disruption” and the possibility of several large demonstrations during the event. We also refer to SPVM’s strong police deployment and mobilization of several police forces for nearly 20 years.

Answers to the questions PresThe SPVM confirmed that “the closure of the Ville-Marie tunnel is not planned for the duration of COP15” and that a greater police presence is planned to ensure the fluidity of traffic in the sector.

The Legault government, for its part, says it does not want to pursue such a shutdown, at least for now. “It is quite the opposite. The guarantee we have given to all partners is that we will not close our road infrastructure. We want to limit our interventions as much as possible to what is absolutely necessary during COP15. In other words, we will do everything we can before and after the event,” said the Quebec Ministry of Transport (MTQ ) summarizes spokeswoman Sarah Benzatoon.

According to our information, the possibility of closing the Ville-Marie tunnel was raised behind the scenes, since this infrastructure passes under the Palais des Congresses. According to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity, it is also a security issue.

M^me Benzatoon, he assures us, is quite different. “Most tunnels are accessible and we can’t postpone or de-icing unless, for example, we have a maintenance operation. That would be the only exception, and if that happens, we’ll try to do it at night whenever possible,” he notes.

MTQ, which is part of the COP15-related mobility and logistics committees, however, acknowledges that weekly meetings on the state of the road network will take place before, during and after the event. So other decisions may be taken later depending on the situation.

Note that according to the latest data from the Minister des Transports, approximately 120,000 vehicles use the Ville-Marie tunnel every day.

With Philippe DeCera-Lessard