UPAC investigating after trash found buried under 200 Terrebonne homes
Quebec's anti-corruption unit (UPAC) is investigating after 200 homeowners found buried trash in the ground under their homes in Terrebonne.
The story begins last year, when a resident of Bernaches Street made an unexpected discovery while doing yard work.
"Hundreds of tires were coming out of the ground," said Roxanne Giroux-Lévesque.
Over the next few months, more and more people found buried trash on their properties. This garbage included car parts — car floors, seats, rubber mats, exhaust pipes, and brake parts.
"We went from a small file to a monster file," said resident Alain Brisebois.
For over 30 years, the land belonged to a company called Brady that illegally buried car parts.
The company received multiple notices that they were infringing on Quebec's Environment Quality Act. With full knowledge of this, the city of La Plaine, now merged with Terrebonne, bought the land for $2,275,000 in 1994.
The city then sold the land section by section between 1995 and 2004 to a company called Robert Bourgoin for a bit more than $250,000.
It was the city's responsibility to decontaminate the land. The company built a residential neighbourhood on top, and its real estate market is now paralyzed.
Nearly 90 homeowners who believe the city botched the decontamination job have now filed a lawsuit.
File transferred to UPAC
A few weeks after coming into power, Terrebonne Mayor Marc-André Plante transferred the file to UPAC.
"There was an analysis of the succession of transactions," Plante said. "The elements appear to us to be of interest for UPAC investigators."
For the moment, he said, it would be speculation to say all the land is contaminated.
The 90 homeowners who are suing the city are hoping to prove there is indeed contamination on their properties.
The city agreed to the citizens' request to perform soil examinations, and the preliminary results of these investigations are expected next spring.
Previous UPAC interventions
This is not the first time the UPAC has been called to intervene in Terrebonne.
The administration of Jean-Marc Robitaille, who was mayor of Terrebonne for 20 years, was targeted by UPAC raids in July 2016.
The mayor's personal residence was also raided. Robitaille resigned for health reasons shortly after these searches.
In 1994, when the land was first sold, the mayor of La Plaine was Daniel Bélec, who, after the municipal mergers, became Robitaille's chief of staff.
