52 – Correcting an injustice for one third of the population

The Beaconsfield acoustic barrier supporters aims at correcting an injustice committed 30 years ago. This injustice has never been remedied to because the city of Beaconsfield does not want to pay its share. So morethan 6,200 citizens are paying with their health for this stubbornness.

52.1 Unfair for whom?

Today Beaconsfield is a residential town divided in its center by a polluted corridor made up of a highway and four railroad tracks.

• Nearly 6,200 residents, nearly a third of the population of Beaconsfield, suffer from not being protected from this excessive pollution. Dozens of citizens are sick from the highway.
• The same goes for schools. There are 4 schools and two daycare centers within 300 meters of the highway. These are 3,700 children who live or go to school in this polluted corridor. Most of these institutions were there before the transformation into a highway. These children, their parents, and the staff never expressed an opinion. The school board assigns children to schools. They go there to be assaulted by noise 200 days a year.

It is important to correct these inequalities as a matter of urgency so that all those who live in the territory of Beaconsfield can obtain an acceptable quality of life.

52.2 What injustice? Never consulted, never protected

Before 1987, there were thousands of citizens in a peaceful neighborhood built along a boulevard.

The transformation of Toronto-Montreal Boulevard into a highway during the 1990s was a great injustice to these residents of the highway. These residents were never consulted, neither before or after the transformation. They did not ask for this situation. They are not responsible for it. But they have suffered the harmful effects daily for more than 30 years. Their peaceful environment was turned into hell.

This transformation has placed Beaconsfield in a unique situation in the Montreal region and possibly in Quebec: A highway in the middle of a residential area and without protection for citizens. Is this a high quality living environment?

52.3 South: the houses were there BEFORE

Most of the hundreds of homes and schools along the highway were there BEFORE the transformation of the boulevard. The MTQ testifies to this from its first report:

The following diagram confirms that the residences in Beaconsfield were almost all built before 1986.

52.4 North: the administration did NOTHING

On the north side, the trains were there before the houses, but NO MITIGATION MEASURES were even studied (or since) the construction of the apartment blocks on Elm Street, between 1965 and 1998. Over several hundred meters, the rails are even raised many meters from Elm Street. So the noise from the trains goes even further.

52.5 What actions caused the damage?

South side: Several actions have increased the noise level suffered by residents since 1987:

• Removal of traffic lights and construction of underground road crossings:
  • At Boulevard St-Charles
  • Pointe-Claire: at Cartier Avenue (1988)
  • Woodland Avenue (1998)
• Raised highway highway at least one meter near Woodland (1998).
• Speed ​​limits increased from 70 to 100 km / h., still without consultation.
• Many new building permits within 100 meters of the highway in the purple zone (> 70 dBA) and in the red zone (> 65 dBA).

North side: No effort to mitigate train noise since the construction of residences and apartment blocks along Elm (years 60 to 90):

• No attempt to measure the noise level on the north side, nor to assess the solutions required to protect residents. Only preliminary measures by the MTQ were taken in 2010. But, in its analysis, the ministry quickly freed itself from all responsibility because of the trains.
• Issuance of new building permits for blocks and even multi-storey condos (eg Adamus) where NO barriers can never be high enough to protect residents of floors 3 and +. Would you live there ?

52.5 This problem is known

Several scientific studies demonstrate the reality of health problems along highways. Studies in Beaconsfield, Quebec and around the world are unanimous on this subject.

“The citizens of Beaconsfield have suffered enough,” added Transport Minister Poeti in 2015. His department is preparing to make a THIRD proposal to resolve this situation (1987, 2010 and now).

52.6 Immoral injustice

The first priority of an elected mayor is to protect the health of its citizens.

The mayor of Beaconsfield publicly acknowledges, in 2018 (P.3), that there is a pollution and public health problem along Highway 20. And, in 2015, he recognizes that an acoustic screen will resolve this situation:

But he refuses to act because of the costs. (!?!) Mr. Mayor, were you elected as an accountant or to do good in our community?

From a moral point of view, there is no significant difference between killing and letting die, between making sick and not doing everything in our power to avoid illness.

So, it’s an immoral situation.

NO noise or air pollution mitigation measures have been implemented in more than 30 years. Several Beaconsfield citizens suffer in silence.