On Tuesday, February 26th, 50 residents, organisations and elected representatives gathered to discuss the future school planned to be built on the Grey Nun’s site, located on Concordia campus. While the Peter-McGill neighbourhood needs public schools, building on the Grey Nun’s site may mean unnecessarily losing a large green space. While this space is not currently accessible to the public, there has been a concerted effort to open the area over the last several years.
The evening began with a short presentation about the general situation and main issues by our Director, Stéphane Febbrari and My Peter-McGill Project Manager, Maryse Chapdelaine. This was followed by a presentation from David Genesse-Bolduc of the Commission scolaire de Montréal (CSDM) and Stéphanie Bellenger-Heng, the Ville-Marie School Commissioner to present their vision on the new Lab-École to be built on the site. Their presentation is currently confidential.
Many questions with few answers
There were a lot of questions raised about the school project and space at the event that the CSDM was unable to answer at this time, including:
- How much green space would the public have access to if a school is built on the site?
- What would this access look like? Would it be available for use during school hours?
Project deemed not “socially acceptable”
The majority of attendees at this meeting felt that the school project was not acceptable for the community as it currently stands. Answers to the above questions may change how the public feels about the project. For now, we will continue to meet with the key decision makers involved, including the CSDM, Education Ministry, our city councillor Cathy Wong, and MNA Jennifer Maccarone. We will also be contacting the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI) who now own the Grey Nun’s land and will be working with the CSDM on the school project.
We will keep the public informed of any future developments regarding the situation. Please continue to send us your thoughts on the issue, express your concerns at the upcoming Ville-Marie Borough Council Meeting, as well as contact your elected representatives or even the media.
