Property in Hull that the city government likes is criticized for being close to a shelter
The city council of Gatineau, Quebec, is moving away from a plan to build a new police headquarters in the parking lot of the Robert-Guertin Center.
Five places were suggested, but the city government and Mayor France Bélisle liked the Robert-Guertin site near the Boulevard des Allumettières in Hull the best.
On the other side of that parking lot is an emergency shelter and a place where people can use drugs under supervision. Some people were worried about how having more police in the area would affect the people who use those services.
After the meeting on Wednesday, it seems like there is more support for a new headquarters in Hautes-Plaines, further north, on Boulevard de la Technologie near Autoroute 5.
The last vote will happen on March 21.
The vote to get rid of Robert Guterres is good news for Daniel Cayley-Daoust, who is president of theAssociation des Résidants de l’Île de Hull.
Together with other groups, his association has asked that the Robert-Guertin site be used for something else, like a community center.
“The site has a lot of potential to meet the needs of the local community as part of downtown revitalization,” he said in French.
Bélisle said in French, “My choice until the end of my term, and then in the next one, will remain Guertin.” “I’ll always say that I think the headquarters should have been in Guertin,” he said.
The Gatineau Olympiques junior hockey team used to play at the Robert-Guertin Centre. In 2021, they will move to the new Center Slush Puppie.
Gatineau police need a new headquarters because the place where they are now is going to be a hospital.