JOHN JANTAK
The 1019 Report
After 20 years, several attempts and a few lawsuits, the four municipalities on Île Perrot are joining forces to once again attempt to complete the abandoned arena project that sits as an eyesore on 5th Avenue in Pincourt.
Notre Dame de l’Île Perrot Mayor Danie Deschênes said her town along with Île Perrot, Pincourt and Terrasse-Vaudreuil are all on board and ready to move forward with the project. To that end, they have applied for a provincial government grant to help fund the initiative.
“We never disagreed on the fact we need an arena on Île Perrot,” Deschênes said in an interview. “We’re just following through on previous discussions we’ve had over the past eight years.”
The grant application will be submitted to the provincial financial assistance program for recreational, sports and outdoor infrastructures.
“We have until Dec. 15 to submit the grant request,” Deschênes said. “We will be ready by then.”
Neither Deschênes nor Pincourt Mayor Claude Comeau were able to provide a dollar figure on how much money the four municipalities would request, but the amount will be determined by the time the grant application is submitted.
“We should have an amount ready by the time we submit the grant application,” Comeau said, adding the subsidy would cover two-thirds of the cost of the project.
“The first step right now is to see if we’re eligible for the subsidies,” Comeau said.
A decision on whether the government will accept the grant application will be made by next spring.
“We need a facility on the island,” Comeau said.
Last month, three of the four towns on the island entered into a three- to five-year agreement to manage an arena in neighbouring Vaudreuil-Dorion in order to provide ice time for youth who live on Île Perrot. It is viewed as a temporary solution to the growing demand for ice time by youth leagues on the island.
“We’re moving forward and, hopefully, if the government supports us, we’ll have a facility for the kids to skate on the island,” Comeau said. “That’s our goal. It’s a win-win situation.”
If the municipalities receive a grant next year to complete the indoor arena complex, it could be ready by 2025. The four participating municipalities will also create a new board to take charge of the project.
Construction of the now abandoned arena complex began in 2003, which marked the start of a saga that has lasted two decades.
In 2004, with costs rising and a dispute erupting with the contractor, the agency created to oversee the arena declared bankruptcy. The contractor sued the town of Pincourt and the agency. The case lingered in court for about seven years before the town of Pincourt purchased the property in 2012.
A plan put forward by a private company owned by ex-Vancouver Canuck winger Alexandre Burrows at that time aimed to see the arena completed, but quickly fell apart. In 2014, Pincourt sold the property to another private firm, but legal disputes entangled the project.
The town bought the property again in 2018, announcing plans to complete the arena. But those plans fell apart, too.
In 2019, the town announced it would demolish the unfinished building. But that plan was delayed. In 2021, the town announced it would sell the property again. No buyer, however, was found.
A study conducted shortly after Comeau was elected mayor in 2021 concluded that completing the arena was a viable option. “This is why we decided to move forward with the project,” he said.