With a shopping bag in hand and backed by 15,000 signatures, one Jean-Talon Market merchant took a dispute over parking spaces straight to City Hall Monday.
Lino Birri submitted the petition during Montreal's city council meeting, calling on the city to reverse its decision to develop of a public square at Casgrain and Shamrock Aves. and hold public consultations on the plan.
When construction started in July, merchants of the market cried foul. Many said because the square would remove 10 parking spaces, not only would it be harder for delivery trucks to load and unload products sold at the market, but it could reduce the number of customers to the market by about 200 per day.
According the Birri the work, which is scheduled to take five-months, has already caused a dip in traffic at the popular market.
He added the work is damaging for a market that sells local products and merchants should have been consulted before work began.
The city maintains businesses were consulted, but according to City Councilor Marvin Rotrand, the borough's decisional summary on Jean-Talon market says only five merchants were consulted before the plans were green-lighted.
City Councilor Marvin Rotrand tweeted on Tuesday that the Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie borough's decisional summary says only five merchants were consulted before giving the project the green-light.
During the council meeting Birri asked borough mayor François Croteau how the city plans to help merchants. Croteau did not respond directly, only saying that the work has been managed well and several measures have been put in place to ensure market accessibility/activity and reduce the negative impact on merchants.