The Canada Lands Company must face the facts: a swimming area must be included in the Old Port of Montreal

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Montreal, May 20, 2021 – The Fondation Rivières is delighted that the City of Montreal has retained the project of an accessible harbor bath in downtown Montreal in its Nature and Sport Plan. And the best place to set it up is in the Jacques-Cartier basin in the Old Port of Montreal: the water there is almost always clean and access is safe.

However, the Real Estate Company of Canada, manager of the Société du Vieux-Port de Montréal, does not intend to integrate swimming areas. We therefore requested a meeting with the minister Anita Anand, Minister of Public Services and Procurement and Mark Miller, Member of Parliament for Ville-Marie-Le Sud-Ouest-Île-des-Soeurs, in order to demonstrate to them the importance of opening such access to citizens in the Old Port.

This is the place where the traditional takes place Grand Splash annual organized by citizens for 16 years. The Fondation Rivières will once again organize a Grand Splash event at the beginning of July in the Jacques-Cartier basin, in order to claim the right of citizens to public access to water, all the more important since this place is located near the most popular neighborhoods. more populous, and would constitute a major asset to the tourist development of Montreal.

Downtown Montreal will never be the same again. It must change and provide a quality living environment for residents. A city center full of offices is over. We are talking about economic recovery in Montreal, what could be simpler than creating a swimming area accessible to everyone and especially to its residents. While in Montreal, we only have the Beach of Verdun, Toronto has no less than ten which are accessible a few minutes from the city center.

Furthermore, we applaud the City's decision to develop a riverside recreational and tourism park in China, to which a swimming area should be added, especially since the water quality is generally excellent. We also note that the vocation of the sites East Beach and Promenade Bellerive are not retained for access to water. We encourage the City of Montreal to continue evaluating the swimming potential in these locations, the only ones located in the East of Montreal.

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