Montreal residents should be able to reject real estate projects through referendums

Residents in Montreal face the chance of losing vital tools to rise up against unwanted real estate development projects in their communities if only Bill 122 is passed without being reviewed states Projet Montreal Leader Valerie Plante.
The Article 24 of the bill, which was approved last December intended to provide Montreal and other Quebec cities more rights from the province, would bring to an end the rights of residents to be able to exercise their rights through referendums on real estate development projects.
If this is to happen, Montreal’s office of public consultation will no longer be in the position to approve real estate projects.
However, the city is not giving up so easily according to Mayor Denis Coderre will give resident s the chance to consult further. But he is in favor of the removal of the referendum saying it gave right to a small group of people to go against development in the area regardless of the entire community.
The entire public will however have a say through the consultation process but for Projet Montreal, this will have very little effect as without the referendum, Montrealers no longer have the ability to force the city to conduct public consultation.
In the past residents in Montreal block projects through the referendum and it is not a surprising practice.
Last year, 290 were against the development of a local mosque which in the end they succeeded. A similar situation also occurred in Outremont.
In Notre-Dame-de-grace also a proposed 4,300 square meter supermarket project was blocked from opening .