JOSHUA ALLAN
The 1510 West
Elected officials from Dorval and Montreal have teamed up to call for a green space next to the airport to be protected.
Dorval Mayor Marc Doret, St. Laurent Borough Mayor Alan DeSousa, Montreal city councillor Alex Norris and former provincial and federal representative Clifford Lincoln last week made a pitch to protect Lot 20 – 140 hectares of green space located next to the Montréal-Trudeau International Airport – by excluding it from the airport’s expansion project.
“The urgency is to protect what we have,” said Doret in an interview.
Doret and the other officials argue the undeveloped land acts as the “green lungs” for a neighbourhood surrounded by the airport and nearby industrial parks.
Lot 20 includes the Golf Dorval course and Monarch Fields. Located in Dorval, just northwest of the airport, it borders the Montreal borough of St. Laurent. To the east are Lots 3 and 4 – 25 hectares of protected green space, including wetlands.
All of the lots are federally owned and managed by Aéroports de Montréal (ADM), which announced an ambitious $4-billion redesign plan last year. The project includes reclaiming surrounding federally owned lands, including Lot 20, for airport use. As this land belongs to the federal government, no permission nor consultation is needed from the surrounding municipalities for the ADM to go forward with this project.
The expansion project has already forced Manoir Kanisha, a pet boarding service located just southeast of the airport, to close its doors in January after 35 years due to its property being reclaimed by ADM.
So far, ADM has dismissed calls to include Lot 20 among the protected green space to the east, offering instead to create what it describes as a “decarbonization zone” on the land within the next 20 years.
Doret, however, rejects this proposal.
“We have an incredible biodiversity here, and it’s all at risk over this concept of a development of a decarbonization zone,” Doret said. “Let’s just think about what that means: the best decarbonization zone is exactly what we have today.
“We have the best tool right here, right now,” he continued. “Leave it as it is. Let’s agree to preserve the space once and for all.”
Norris, who also acts as an associate councillor for major parks, affirmed the city of Montreal’s commitment to advocating for the protection of Lot 20.
“Yes, we do need to decarbonize transport,” Norris said, “but this cannot be done at the expense of natural wetlands and natural green space.”
According to an information package provided by the City of Dorval, Lot 20 acts as an important space for local biodiversity. The land is part of an area that is home to 216 species of birds, some of which are threatened or endangered.
The Monarch Fields are aptly named for being a stop-off for hundreds of monarch butterflies during their seasonal migration. The park also is home to thousands of milkweed plants, which is the only species of plant on which these butterflies lay their eggs.
The ADM, however, has been vocal about its opposition to designating the space as a nature park. In an op-ed published in the Montreal Gazette last Thursday, ADM President and Chief Executive Officer Yves Beauchamp stated his organization would be against any project that would increase the presence of wildlife near the airport.
“Wildlife hazard is a very real and serious threat to aviation,” he wrote, adding: “The creation of a 140-hectare nature park on our airport site would clearly go against the best practices and actions adopted by our partners and ourselves.”
But former politician Clifford Lincoln disagrees with Beauchamp. He addressed the op-ed at last Friday press conference, dismissing the ADM’s reasoning as “completely phony.”
“If today the airport can live with (wildlife), why not tomorrow?” Lincoln asked. “There is no reason at all why this wonderful ecosystem cannot live side-by-side with the airport. It has since 1941 (when the airport first opened). Nature hasn’t changed since. The birds are still there. The biodiversity is still the same.”
He warned that once nature is abandoned for development, “it is gone forever.”
“I am for nature and against concrete,” Lincoln said.
The group would like ADM and the federal government “to sit down with us in working groups so that we can find a way that we can reach all of our objectives without compromising the protection of this very important green space,” said Norris.
“We’re convinced that we can reconcile the objectives of the airport with the necessity of the protection of the natural green spaces,” he added.
Cutline:
Map shows the 140 hectares – which includes Golf Dorval and Monarch Field – the City of Dorval wants excluded from the airport’s expansion plan.