Outremont residents call for action on tree pruning before next storm hits

Five days after an ice storm struck Quebec, thousands of Quebecers are still waiting for their power to return with parts of the province boasting the highest concentrations of trees among the most affected, according to Hydro-Québec.

In Montreal's Outremont borough, neighbours are banding together to pick up the pieces after the ice storm, as they call on Hydro-Québec and city officials to restore electricity, clear the roads and prune trees.

Johanna Azoulay's front lawn was a thicket of twisted branches. She and her neighbours cleared the debris that had sealed off the street for several days. Her power finally returned on Saturday — the same day she brought her four-year old son to Sainte-Justine Hospital to get treated for a double-ear infection after "freezing for three nights."

"We cleaned up everything. All the neighbours together. Nobody has come to help us yet," she said on Sunday.

Azoulay said her husband had to take matters into his own hands and remove the branches from the power lines, although Hydro-Québec and Energy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon have advised residents to avoid touching branches and wires for their own safety. 

The large tree that fell onto Azoulay's house and blocked her entrance has been on her mind for years.

She said she has been writing to the city to prune the tree since 2014. Now, she said she has had enough. She wants city officials "to be prepared for mother nature" and get to trimming the trees.

Sylvain Blais, another resident who calls Outremont home, also wants to see the city get more involved.

"In Outremont, there's nobody taking care of trees," he said, adding that some have had to hire private companies to do the pruning.

"It's the price to pay for nice trees, but the city has not touched the trees in the past few years," said

According to Sylvain Leclerc, communications officer for the borough of Outremont, the cleanup and restoration is still underway but has made significant progress.

The more mature trees a borough has, the more issues will arise in the event of an ice storm, said Leclerc, adding that the mayor would be conducting a post-mortem of its storm response on Tuesday.

Cleared paths, open arms

Cynthia Carsley was supposed to celebrate Passover this weekend, but she has been without electricity since the storm struck this week.

"We need power. We sleep under many blankets. We're worried we're going to lose all our food," she said.

But while Carsley attributes the storm that knocked out her power to "an act of God," the Outremont resident has found support in her community.

"[The neighbours] invited us for showers and food and warming up and everything," said Carsley, explaining how the neighbours — using chainsaws and their bare hands — cleared the streets so people could step out of their homes.

Blais is one of those neighbours. For the past few days, he has been checking on others, helping to clear the front door entrances.

"That's what neighbours are for," said Blais. "These people couldn't get out of their house, so we helped them to make sure they could at least safely get out."

Shared responsibility

Francis Labbé, a spokesperson for Hydro-Québec, said the public utility had underinvested in tree pruning in previous years and is now racing to catch up.

Hydro-Québec spent $60 million on pruning in 2016 but has since doubled its efforts, with an expected total of $120 million next year, according to Labbé.

"It's going to be up to date in terms of tree trimming in the next few years, but we should have started earlier," said Labbé.

However, Labbé stressed the task of pruning should be shared between the public utility and private citizens alike.

"It's a mixed responsibility. When we identify an area where branches are too close to our grid, we intervene and cut branches. But an owner has the responsibility of trimming his own tree," he said.

"But we also have another phenomenon in largely forested cities or areas where people don't like to see workers with chainsaws cutting branches," he said.