2024 – Promenade-Bellerive Park | No swimming before the end of the decade

Montreal is postponing the Parc de la Promenade-Bellerive swimming area project for several years after a new public health alert highlighted “several health concerns and risks” related to the area.

The Plante government has ruled out the possibility of creating a swimming area before the large-scale renovation works on the riverbank planned for 2028 to 2032.

The public health announcement, “is not good news, in the sense that we still have a lot of work to do to achieve the goal of authorizing swimming,” said Laurence Lavigne Lalonde, in charge of large parks on Valérie Plante’s executive committee. That said, “we are happy to have some clearer information about the risks associated” with this project, she continued. “At least now we know where we stand.”

The development of a supervised swimming beach accessible to all in the Parc de la Promenade-Bellerive has been in the works for several years. In 2021, the mayor promised to open it the following year, in 2022.

Tuesday, The press reported that a brand new public health advisory highlighted several problems with the project. The document concluded that the beach bottom is contaminated with lead and benzene, that the water could easily be contaminated by sewage, and that industrial spills could occur. The Montreal Regional Public Health Department (DRSP) therefore recommended “restricting access to the site and not allowing swimming,” which some people already do, even in the absence of a designated area.

In response, the swimming area project has been postponed for several years. The City of Montreal’s Department of Major Parks already had a project in the pipeline to restore approximately ten kilometres of shoreline, specifically the Promenade-Bellerive Park. The planned completion date for the work: 2028 to 2032. It is within the framework of this project that the area can be remediated.

“It will not be possible to arrange something temporary, so the project will be postponed,” said Mr.^me Lavigne Lalonde. This is the purpose of access to water in the restoration project (des berges)”.

In the short term, the furniture (the beach) placed by the district will be removed and moved to prevent visitors from swimming, he said.^me Lavigne Lalonde. “We are going to move the furniture to a place where there is no access to the water, but where people can still sit, relax and enjoy the view of the river. (…) We are not coming to put up barricades and barbed wire…” A new poster will also be placed explaining the risks associated with swimming.