The City of Montreal needs an inquiry into the $68.6-million Sanaaq Centre dumpster fire

How much would you pay for an unfinished, unfurnished building that you’ll never own, but for which you’re 100% responsible for utilities, maintenance and repairs? If you’re the City of Montreal, it’s a minimum of $68.6-million.

It’s a real estate deal so utterly bizarre that it raises serious suspicion of corruption so extreme it would make Frank Zampino blush. Montreal’s Sanaaq Centre — an as-yet unopened library and community centre near Cabot Square meant to help the local unhoused Inuit population (though legally prohibited from being a homeless shelter) — will have cost the city $5.9-million by the time it’s projected to open (May 2025).

For what the city will spend on the Sanaaq Centre, Montreal could have built several libraries, or homeless shelters.

It appears that this incomprehensible arrangement was designed to give Devimco, the profitable real estate developer, a tax break. More unusual is that Projet Montréal has vigorously defended every incoherent step of a project that stretches back to the Coderre administration.

Mayor Plante has to take responsibility for this unmitigated dumpster fire. An independent inquiry is needed. Montrealers elected Projet and Plante because they were sick and tired after years of unhinged corruption. To defend this particularly egregious example is inexcusable.  

Mayor Plante owes Montrealers more than an explanation: she owes us accountability. ■

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