Jun 9 2010
Pascal Bigras, executive director of Nature-Action Québec, Henri-François Gautrin, Verdun MNA, and Claude Trudel, Mayor of Verdun Borough, announced the launch of a greening project “Verdun fait sa fraîche” in the Verdun Borough. The three-year greening project is designed to mitigate the urban heat island effect and anticipates in making the vegetation cover denser in the neighbourhood of Borough’s Wellington-De l'Église.
The project is one among the 14 projects Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux has funded in the 2006-2012 action plan on climate change, for neutralizing urban heat islands. Gautrin commented that a heat island has higher temperatures in summer in the urban areas than in the other areas. This high temperature variation will create health problems for the public and proper steps have to be taken to reduce the effect of heat lands. Claude Trudel is thankful to the financial support given by the Québec government for the greening project and to SOVERDI’s contributions to the Green Lanes project.
Pascal Bigras emphasized that several components of the projects will be built with the residents’ cooperation. At the corner regions of rue de Verdun and de l'Église, a green neighborhood consisting of a green wall, mist-makers, and plants is planned. Nine hundred trees will be planted on streets and private properties during the next three years. A planning committee for developing ruelle Rushbrooke and four green lanes will be formed together with residents. In addition, awareness activities will be arranged for the residents to stay updated on the project’s development.