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Dorval residents continue to protest crematorium

Mayor says lawyers still looking at how to stop it

Alycia Ambroziak
The Gazette
Thursday, June 26, 2008

Put a stop to the construction of a crematorium in Dorval Village. That was the message most of the more than 30 people who attended last week’s city council meeting had for Dorval Mayor Edgar Rouleau.
And Rouleau agreed.
The problem, he told them, is finding a way to do it.
“And that’s what we – and our lawyers – are working on,” Rouleau said following the June 18 council meeting which was filled to the brim with concerned citizens. “We are doing everything we can.”
Most of the questions during question period dealt with the legalities of the construction of a crematorium at the 50-year-old Lakeshore Cardinal Funeral Home on Lakeshore Drive. Many residents expressed unhappiness with having a crematorium in their neighbourhood.
Or, as Wild Willy’s ice cream parlor owner Robin Pope put it, there is a certain queasiness factor in having a crematorium across the street from an ice cream store that has an outside terrace.
“This will certainly affect business. And it will certainly bring down property values,” she said.
The mayor reiterated that the city had no choice but to approve the building permit as it conformed to all city bylaws and regulations.
But, he added: “We don’t want it and we’ve been saying that from the beginning.”
Rouleau said a 1983 Quebec government directive, which states, among other things, that new crematoriums should be at least 40 metres from residences and located in cemeteries – which is not the case in Dorval.
However, Rouleau added, the directive is not binding.
“It is a not the law. It is just a guideline,” he explained. “But we feel that the environment department should nevertheless take those guidelines into account.
Jean-Charles Cardinal, co-owner of the funeral home, said  plans for the crematorium have not changed.
“We got permits from the environment department even before we got a construction permit from the city,” Cardinal said, adding that the permits are conditional to tests to ensure no pollution will emanate from the 15-metre high chimney.
“We have done our homework and we are well within the law,” he said.