{"id":527739,"date":"2026-03-10T22:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T22:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/527739\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T22:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T22:27:09","slug":"saint-leonard-residents-demand-protection-from-flooding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/527739\/","title":{"rendered":"Saint-Leonard residents demand protection from flooding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saint-Leonard residents who have been dealing with flooding for years are once again calling on the government to update its anti-flooding infrastructure now that spring is around the corner.<\/p>\n

Some say officials have failed to deliver on a key campaign promise by Soraya Martinez Ferrada and the new Ensemble Montr\u00e9al administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore the election, we were told that they were in opposition and their hands were tied,\u201d said Mario Napolitano, a member of a Saint-Leonard citizens\u2019 committee. \u201cWell, now we voted them in and we want action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saint-Leonard maintenance worker Nick Argento says he starts preparing for the worst every time rain is in the forecast.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re getting all contaminated water into your local,\u201d Argento explained. \u201cYou have to wait until it goes down and then after you have to clean everything out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll come (from) like the two toilets that are downstairs and they start overflowing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says his building floods whenever the borough is hit with a downpour, including last summer, when Saint-Leonard was pummeled with 100 millimetres of rain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the city has to enlarge those pipes because they can\u2019t take the flow of the rainfall anymore,\u201d Argento said.<\/p>\n

The flooding in Saint-Leonard has been so bad that residents have formed a citizens\u2019 committee<\/a>, pushing the borough to do more to protect the community during storms.<\/p>\n

They brought those concerns to Monday night\u2019s council meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing to the meeting last night, it really doesn\u2019t seem we\u2019re going to get that help,\u201d said Tina Di Serio, a member of the committee.<\/p>\n

The borough is encouraging homeowners to apply for Montreal\u2019s R\u00e9noPlex renovation subsidy, which can help cover the cost of installing waterproof garage doors.<\/p>\n

But residents say that solution misses the real problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a false solution because even if you enforce the doors, the water comes up through the toilet bowls,\u201d Napolitano said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese part-time, band-aid solutions are not what we want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saint-Leonard borough mayor Dominic Perri says major water infrastructure upgrades are handled by the City of Montreal, not individual boroughs.<\/p>\n

He says part of the issue is that the borough\u2019s water collectors are outdated and too small to handle heavier rainfall linked to climate change.<\/p>\n

\u201cWater is the responsibility of the City of Montreal; they have the budget for that,\u201d Perri said.<\/p>\n

\"\"A Saint-Leonard resident cleans up his basement following water damage, July 14, 2025. (Zachary Cheung, CityNews)<\/p>\n

Now that there\u2019s a new administration in town, Perri says there may finally be room in the central budget to tackle the problem, though he warns residents will have to be patient.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a very costly project and it will take time,\u201d the borough mayor said. \u201cImagine Langelier Boulevard opened from the sidewalk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care,\u201d countered Di Serio. \u201cIt\u2019s an emergency, and it needs to be rectified now. Not tomorrow, now.\u201d<\/p>\n

With more rain coming Wednesday \u2013 though some of that will turn into freezing rain<\/a> \u2013 residents say they can\u2019t wait any longer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey use this to get elected, and they used it in their campaign, and they promised that they were going to help the citizens,\u201d Di Serio said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saint-Leonard residents who have been dealing with flooding for years are once again calling on the government to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-527739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}