Dorval extinguishes chance of future crematoriums outside industrial park

At its monthly municipal meeting Monday night, Dorval city council approved a bylaw limiting the construction of new crematoriums to within the industrial zone, but critics said it was too little, too late, given such a project on Lakeshore Road in the village area is nearing completion.

"That's easy to say after (the fact), but who knew that Cardinal was going to ask for a crematorium?" Dorval Mayor Edgar Rouleau told The Chronicle after a relatively calm meeting where fewer residents were in attendance than the ones in the tense spring months where many voiced their concerns about the Lakeshore construction.

"It's a little bit like closing the barn door after letting the wolf through," charged Jean Clément, who ran for council in the last municipal elections and has been part of a citizen's opposition since then called Dorval Citizens for Democracy.

Clément and several others had been advocating the city to move the current project to the industrial park, citing health and visual pollution concerns.

Undertaken by Jean-Charles Cardinal, who owns the family-operated Lakeshore Cardinal Funeral Home, as an extension of his business, the crematorium was publicly opposed by city council since news of it first broke. However, Rouleau and his team insisted Cardinal was legally within his rights. "He knows what he's doing," Rouleau said.

Dorval did hire an independent chemist as a consultant to verify the crematorium's health standards, and they were not only met, but exceeded as well, Rouleau added.

As of now, Cardinal has received approval from Dorval to build the project, but still needs an operational permit from council, as well as another one from the Montreal agglomeration council's environment committee.

The latter has already conducted their tests for a high level of pollutants such as mercury, Rouleau said. So far, they have been in Cardinal's favour. "They didn't hand out the (final) results," he added.

Over the course of the meeting, resident Daniel Gilbert asked council to clarify whether the crematorium could be asked to shut down if, after it began operating, problems of visual pollution or smells occurred.

Rouleau said that was definitely the case.