These are very frustrating times for Andrea Peplow. The owner of Imagination Daycare on Robert Bourassa Boulevard has had to close for a second straight day.
Eighty children, who would normally be playing or learning, have been forced to go elsewhere.
Peplow closed the daycare because the noise emitting from pylon drivers at a neighbouring construction site is too loud for her to operate.
Global News measured noise levels between 105 and 118 decibels — sounds louder than a jackhammer.
“It can damage people’s eardrums,” Peplow told Global News.
Steel pylons are being driven 50 feet into the ground across the street from the daycare.
The work is scheduled to continue all week.
Peplow had a meeting with the upper management of Groupe Canvar, the construction company working next to the daycare, but she tells Global News no solution was offered to reduce the noise.
“It’s frustrating, it’s upsetting, I know I’m not going to get anywhere because I’m battling giants with tons of money, tons of power. And they don’t care. Nobody cares,” Peplow said.
It’s unclear what the Montreal noise ordinance says about construction noise next to schools or daycares. No one from the city got back to Global News by deadline to confirm.
A former construction worker-turned-filmmaker, Martin Frigon, has just finished making a documentary, Cities Held Hostage, and tells Global News contractors have a virtual blank cheque, once Montreal issues a building permit.
“It’s a free for all because there is so much money implied in those types of developments and projects. Once the machine is turned on, there’s no stopping them. There is nothing you can do,” Frigon said.
As for Peplow, she hasn’t decided whether she will reopen the daycare on Tuesday. She will make the decision this weekend.