'We get the crumbs': Montréal-Nord community upset after promised sports centre put on hold

Montréal-Nord residents are speaking out after a promised sports and recreation centre in the borough was placed on the back burner indefinitely after being left out of the city's budget.

"In the community, a lot of people are tired of [waiting] because it was promised," said Montréal-Nord community activist Sacha-Wilky Merazil.

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante, the leader of Projet Montréal, vowed to make the construction of a sports facility in the borough a top priority during the 2021 fall election campaign, but no funds were allocated for the project in the city's 2022 budget or its 10-year capital expenditure program (PDI).

Jude-Alain Mathieu, a community group director, says the postponement of the project tells the youth of Montréal-Nord that they are not important.

"It's as if we get the crumbs, we can't be a priority," said the director and co-founder of Nos Jeunes à Cœur, a youth organization in the borough.

Mathieu says the sports centre is a long-term solution for youth who face negative temptations in the borough, particularly amid the spike in gun violence.

He says the longer the project takes, the more youth are put at risk.

"This lack of infrastructure, it really doesn't allow us to create the relationship that we want with the kids," Mathieu said.

Rejection of funding

The city's budget was adopted during a special city council meeting Thursday, during which Montréal-Nord Mayor Christine Black, a member of the official opposition Ensemble Montréal, pleaded her case for the importance of the facility.

"It's really a symbol for our community that's crying out for help," said Black. Montréal-Nord is one of the poorest and most racially-diverse boroughs on the island of Montreal. Black says its residents are more susceptible to health issues, criminality and dropping out of school.

"Installations like the sports centre are at the heart of the solution," she said.

A CBC data analysis from October 2021 revealed a lack of access to sports and recreational facilities in low-income neighbourhoods in Montreal.

Currently, Montréal-Nord, Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles, Saint-Léonard and Anjou all share one sports centre despite having a combined population of more than 300,000.

Black proposed an amendment to the PDI, which would see $75 million allocated to the construction of the project over the next five years. The Plante administration, which holds the majority of the voting power on city council, rejected the amendment.

"The administration can no longer fulfil promises it made to the population less than three months ago," Aref Salem, interim leader of Ensemble Montréal, said before the vote in a Wednesday news release.

City says project is still a priority

Caroline Bourgeois, head of sports and recreation on the City's executive committee, says the the sports centre is still a top priority for the city, but until there are more evaluations on the cost and until the location is chosen, it can't be added to the budget.

"We are at the Level 1 for that project," said Bourgeois. "So we want this project — sure it will take some years to do it, but we want to work on that."

Bourgeois added projects of this magnitude are not carried out "on the back of an envelope as the opposition seems to think." Although she provided no timeline, she urged residents to be patient as the project is moved along appropriately.

But Merazil, the community activist born and raised in Montréal-Nord, says residents have been patient long enough.

"In 2008, the mayor of Montreal North [Gilles] Deguire said he would build a sports centre in Montreal North and the mayor before him told the same thing," said Merazil, who ran for city councillor of Montréal-Nord in the 2017 municipal election.

He says he's been waiting to see a sports centre in his borough since elementary school and is urging the city to get the project off the ground now.

"Now, we are in 2022 and there's still no sports centre...It's really important for the city of Montreal and the borough to find a solution."