Chinatown community leaders say city plan to install public toilet 'stinks'

Residents and merchants in Chinatown are speaking out against a city plan to install a public toilet inSunYatSen Park an area used for community gatherings and ceremonial events which is now partly blocked by metal fencing and gravel.

Localssay they weren't consulted about the decisionand woke up one day to find ground had already been broken.

"I just found out from word of mouth," saidBill Wong, secretary for Sun Yat Sen Park Foundation. "I think this is a bad spot for it.It stinks."

This month, theCity of Montreal is unveiling several of the new self-cleaning, free-to-use public washrooms it has planned for a dozen locations across the city.

• Montreal's new self-cleaning public toilets will soon be open for business

Wongtold CBCNews that the space,located at the corner of De LaGauchetireand Clark streets, is used for regularTai Chi for seniors and line dancing activities.

He said they often set up a stage at the far end for important events liketheancestors ceremony, Saint-Jean-Baptiste Dayand August moon something that won't be possible with construction equipment in the way.

The city hasn't said when construction will be finished or when the space will be accessible again.

"We built this park with the collaboration of the Chinese community. Now, there's no collaboration," he said.

Youssef Amane, spokesperson for the city's executive committee, said in a statement toCBCNews that the Ville-Marie borough meets regularly with representatives fromChinatownabout urban development in the area.

But the borough hasn't met with all of the representatives on this specific issue. More meetings are planned in the near future, he said.

The project to install all 12 toilet facilities will cost a total of $3 million, with construction already beginning on several sites, including one at Papineau Metro.

Wilson Wong, presidentof the Chinese Association of Montreal, said he's concerned that the stall, once completed, will be misused.

"I don't think it's a good idea, because there are a lot of homeless people around. There's a lot of empty bottles, a lot of needles," he said.

Wong said he's not optimistic that the city will back down now that construction has already begun, but that it's important the community make it clear that it doesn't support the plan and should have been consulted or at least informed ahead of time.

"We are very upset," he said. "The Chinese people and the local residents and merchants are really against it."

The stall itself is going to be installed inside the existing pavilion which sits on the park site and serves as a souvenir shop in the summer.

It's not clear whether the shop will be able to open before work on the toilet is completed.