The City of Gatineau is working long hours getting Jacques-Cartier Park ready for the upcoming Mosaïvernales exhibition, and the noise isn't sitting well with some people living nearby.

Snow machines are firing 24 hours a day, seven days a week to prepare the park for the winter iteration of MosaïCanada: an immensely popular Canada 150 installation of plant-based sculptures that drew more than 1.3 million visitors last year.

For Claudia Martinangeli, who lives in a building on rue Laurier, the noise from the incessant snow production is simply too much to bear.

"Now, I find excuses not to be at home to not hear that noise," she told Radio-Canada in a French-language interview.

"It also prevents me from working and concentrating, because it's always an incessant background noise. It gets on your nerves."

Gatineau councillor and Deputy Mayor Louise Boudrias says if snow machines aren't allowed to operate in Jacques-Cartier Park overnight, the upcoming Mosaïvernales exhibition might not be ready for its planned opening date. (Radio-Canada)

Noise bylaw amended

In December, Gatineau council amended the city's noise bylaw to allow snow to be produced in the park between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. from Dec. 15 until Jan. 27.

Deputy Mayor Louise Boudrias said that if crews had to stop making snow at 11 p.m., the exhibition might not be ready in time for the Jan. 26 opening date.

The cold overnight temperatures also make the snow machines more effective, she said.

"If we want to be ready in time for the [opening of] an event that will attract 200,000 people to Gatineau, we must be able to do so. That's why we passed a resolution," Boudrias told Radio-Canada.

"If the weather stays on our side, we could [be] finished next Sunday."

Jacques-Cartier Park will be filled with grand illuminated ice sculptures from January to March 2018. (MosaïCanada 150)

'It's intolerable'

That's not good enough for Martinangeli, who said she called 311 to file a complaint about the noise with the city.

Residents living near Jacques-Cartier Park weren't asked whether they wanted the noise bylaw to be amended, she added.

Martinangeli's neighbour Joe Nahra said he's lost sleep because of the work to prepare the park for the Jan. 26 opening date.

"The noise here in the apartment is intolerable," he told Radio-Canada in French. "Twenty-four hours a day, [all] during the night. It's intolerable."

Mosaïvernales is expected to run until March 4, coinciding with Winterlude in February.

Unlike MosaïCanada, which was free, visitors will have to pay $10 to see the new sculptures. Children under 12 will be able to get in for free.