Hydro-Quebec downtown installation met with backlash [Video]

Hydro-Quebec plans to build a transformer station in a park next to the Grande Bibliothèque in The Village and is being met with fierce opposition from historians, urban planners, architects and politicians.

When the library was inaugurated 20 years ago, it was supposed to mark the revival of a decaying neighbourhood. Now, a nearby transformer station is aging and Hydro-Quebec wants to replace it.

A group of seven respected architects, historians, and prominent figures in Quebec culture say it will take away the library’s beauty and positive visual impact.

“It would mark the tacit approval of the growing degradation of a neighbourhood plagued with urban misery, which we pretend to feel sorry about,” they wrote in a letter published Tuesday.

Québec Solidaire MNA Manon Massé told journalists the area is the last green space downtown, and “sadly for Hydro-Quebec, people don’t want their installation.”

But the Crown corporation said it …