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Business owner Robin Pope and resident Jean Clement oppose crematorium on Lakeshore Drive. (JOHN MAHONEY/The Gazette)
Pull crematorium permit: Dorval residents
Citizens' group wants city to stop project
Anna Bratulic
The Gazette
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Business owner Robin Pope and resident Jean Clement oppose crematorium on Lakeshore Drive. (JOHN MAHONEY/The Gazette)
A residents’ association in Dorval will formally submit a request at Monday night’s council meeting asking the city to withdraw its permit allowing a funeral home to build a crematorium on Lakeshore Drive.
Brent Hussey, president of the Citizens of Dorval for Democracy, said residents who oppose the facility say the facility does not belong in a residential area .
About 100 Dorval residents showed up at an information meeting Tuesday to find out more about the crematorium that will be built at the Lakeshore Cardinal Funeral Home on Lakeshore Drive.
Several residents complained that they were only recently made aware of the impending new addition to the
50-year-old funeral home and wondered why Dorval officials didn’t tell them about it earlier.
“I found out about this a week ago. There should have been some kind of public
forum to ask people what they think, especially for the people who live nearby,” said Lorraine Montpetit, who lives three blocks away. “There doesn’t seem to be any transparency about this whole thing.”
George Boudreau, who lives in the apartment building across the street from the funeral home, worries that the crematorium will lower the value of houses in the area.
“By living next door to something like this, it’s also going to affect people’s insurance like crazy,” he said.
However, one man, who commended the funeral home for good service in the past, said he had confidence that the crematorium would not pose a problem for local residents.
Addressing Jean-Charles Cardinal, co-owner of the funeral home, he said: “I’m sure if you’re going to do it, you’re going to do it right.”
City officials were not on hand to field questions at the meeting. However, Cardinal did attend to try to assuage fears that the crematorium would impinge on the quality of life for residents in the area.
Cardinal anticipates that about 250 bodies will be cremated at the site per year. The crematorium, he added, would be used primarily for clients of the Dorval and Lachine branches of the funeral home.