Saint-Leonard residents fed up with city for not protecting borough from flooding
A borough city council meeting in Saint-Leonard got heated as residents responded to Montreal's response to persistent flooding in recent years.
Residents shouted at Saint-Leonard city councillors and Ensemble Montréal borough mayor Michel Bisonnet throughout the meeting.
'You got to spend money on what is necessary to support 92-year-old people that are living on that street, Belmont, that have the backflow,' resident Mark Anthony Cerello said at the mic. 'The cost-benefit analysis is inertia. You're not doing anything.'
Belmont Street has been particularly hard hit and residents again suffered serious flooding on July 13.
Mark Anthony Cerello
Mark Anthony Cerello delivered a heated rebuke to his Saint-Leonard elected members at a council meeting on Aug. 4, 2025. (CTV News)
Saint-Leonard West city councillor Dominic Perri said a study from the engineering firm CIMA+ found that the main water collection station on Langelier Boulevard needs to be increased two to five times, and that he was successful in getting $151 million earmarked for the project, but that it is 'not acceptable' that he has been told the project won't start for five years.
'We have succeeded in getting the money, but we cannot touch for five years,' said the opposition councillor. 'This is not acceptable. It is most likely these people will be flooded again. The project eventually has to be done because climate change is here to remain. The costs will be higher.'
Dominic Perri
Saint-Leonard West city councillor Dominic Perri responds to questions about the persistend flooding in his borough.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said after the July 13 flooding that the city is investing in underground infrastructure as well as sponge parks and other solutions.
She said the situation is more complicated and her team is considering everything that can be done.
The opposition party does not agree.
'This administration has shown not to prioritize this collector and I'm going to do that,' said Ensemble Montréal leader Soraya Martinez Ferrada. 'I'm going to give the mandate to execute it,'
Cerello blamed 'the green scam' for aggravating the situation.
'The city of Saint-Leonard, where I grew up, in 1963, has been suffering from the same issues, and the politicians are not addressing the same issues of why we have sewage back up every storm that we have, whether it's a big storm, a medium storm or a horrific storm,' said Cerello. 'I'm directly blaming Mrs. Plante. Her administration does not care about the young people. They care about sustainability and the green scam.'
RE/MAX real estate broker Mario Conte has lived in the borough for over three decades and is tired of hearing the same concern being voiced without solutions from politicians. He said the problem dates well before Plante was in office and has spanned multiple mayoral terms.
'The residents are fed up,' he said. 'I mean, it's years. It's about 25-30 years. It's a question of floods. They're promised certain things, and nothing is happening. They're living all this stress every time it rains, the elderly people, and it's just getting from bad to worse.'
Conte also questioned whether the problem lies entirely with climate change.
'Is it climate change? Is it the over-construction? Is it the condo towers that are soliciting our drainage system?' he said.
Perri said he understands his residents' complaints and hopes more will be done soon.
'I sympathize with them because many of them got flooded twice last year and this year again, and what is really not acceptable is that more than four years ago, I asked the administration of Projet Montréal in Montreal to do something about the continued, repeated flooding, and we have in Saint-Leonard,' said Perri.
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