As the psychologically dark shadow of the city’s perennial moving day (July 1st) cozies up to hints of the summer sun, Montreal’s stout-hearted residents–many of them surrounded on three sides (as I am) by streets closed for road repairs (as well as all those pipes and wires that the guys on the job site like to stand around and ponder)–have a new hurdle to face.

The city is asking us to avoid taking trash to any of its ecocentres, places where the public can drop off large waste like furniture, electronics, construction debris and dangerous household products.

Three of the seven ecocentres are now closed indefinitely, the fault–the city says–of a subcontractor who was banned from bidding from contracts due to allegations of waste dumping.

Montreal says the ecocentre on Côte-Des-Neiges Road is temporarily closed because the contractor hired to haul trash away was blacklisted by the province. (Kate McKenna/CBC)

Turns out, the subcontractor who replaced the original subcontractor did not have the proper number of trucks to get the job done.

The result: major clog-ups.

The city says residents can now leave their waste on the curb and it will be picked up.