While many Montrealers are thankful for the unseasonably mild weather and lack of snow, they’re also decrying one unpleasant consequence: garbage.
Critics say it’s everywhere and are expressing frustration at what they see as the city’s lack of preparedness.
“We have to hire somebody to clean up,” Alain Creton, head of the Peel Street Merchants’ Association and owner of Chez Alexandre restaurant, says of an alley just south of his business on Peel Street.
He says business owners on the street are mad because they’ve been having problems with cleanliness in the alley since December 2023. On Wednesday Global News found trash as well as human feces in the alley and Creton claims the city isn’t doing enough to clean up the place.
“Three times we call them, they say they will do it,” he tells Global News. “They will never do it.”
The city’s administration is getting blasted for similar problems across the city. Snow that would usually conceal garbage this time of year has largely melted, thanks to milder-than-usual temperatures, so garbage is visible. Critics believe the city should have foreseen the problem.
“In December we were already starting to see that the weather was unpredictable, that we were starting to see more trash than usual because of the lack of snow,” says Stephanie Valenzuela, the city’s opposition environment critic.
She insists the city is not putting enough resources into keeping streets and parks clean, and wants the administration to change the way cleaning teams are deployed.
“To do the service not just from April 1 to Nov. 20, but throughout all the seasons as well,” she says.
She also believes an education campaign could help underscore for residents the importance of keeping the environment clean.
Maja Vodanovic, a member of the city administration’s executive committee and mayor of the Lachine borough, says crews have begun cleaning up because the warm weather is more than a month early. She cautions, however, that the operation will take about a month — they were caught off guard.
“All the equipment will only be available 1st of April,” she says. That’s when we will be in full force.”
She says most of the mechanical street sweepers will start operating by mid-March, two weeks early. There’s just one problem: summer street parking rules only come into effect April 1.
The city is trying to find solutions.
“Maybe putting no parking signs so that we can clear some parts of the roads,” she says.
Vodanovic argues that people also have a role to play in keeping streets and parks clean. Critics agree but insist that doesn’t let the city off the hook. They stress that the administration must be nimble enough to make changes in case short winters like this one become the norm.
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