Technoparc Ecosystem
again threatened
Montreal must not lose the Technoparc Ecosystem to ADM expansion
Montréal, February 25, 2025
The ADM must not be allowed to destroy the Technoparc Ecosystem by developing public land held in trust by the government of Canada on behalf of all Canadians.
The Green Coalition has sent the letter below to the Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, the Honourable Anita Anand, and the Honourable Steven Guilbeault. We support the brief submitted by Technoparc Oiseaux on January 31, 2025, to the CMM, the City of Montréal, the City of Dorval, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, and Transport Canada.
We have also approached Mark Carney, Chrystia Freeland, Frank Bayliss and Karina Gould asking them to take a public position concerning the conservation of the entire Technoparc ecosystem with the goal of creating an urban national park in Montreal, Parc-nature des Sources.
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Dear Prime Minister Trudeau,
Great progress has been made by the City of Montreal and by the Montreal Metropolitan Community (CMM) in the conservation of the city’s natural spaces. In June 2023, the City of Montreal’s Executive Committee passed a motion to expand the Parc-nature des Sources in the Technoparc ecosystem from 39 to 219 hectares.
Montreal has acknowledged its conservation shortfall relative to other Canadian cities and is doing something about it. The “Montreal Pledge” for swift action to protect urban biodiversity and ecosystems was signed by many cities of the world at the COP 15 Conference in Montreal in December 2022 as part of the United Nations Global Biodiversity Framework. Montreal wants to keep the pledge.
The CMM, as well as 25 regional cities and boroughs, have adopted resolutions in favour of the conservation of the Technoparc ecosystem. Many conservation groups including Green Coalition and Technoparc Oiseaux, and the 214 scientists who called out to “protect the urban diversity and habitat of Technoparc,” all vigorously support the expansion of the Parc-nature des Sources.
The Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke has also publicly called for the protection of the entire Technoparc ecosystem.
Technoparc Oiseaux, in a well-researched brief submitted on January 31, 2025, to Transport Canada, the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, and the CMM, details the value of the Technoparc wetlands, meadows and forests. They are Montreal’s last large, unprotected ecosystem – more than 200 hectares of irreplaceable wildlife habitat sheltering 220 observed bird species, some at risk of extinction, and the breeding grounds of the endangered Monarch butterfly.
The Technoparc natural spaces form a contiguous ecosystem the size of Mount Royal Park.
Citizens clearly agree with the goal of conservation, as they watch the drama being played out in the Technoparc wetland ecosystem north of Pierre-Elliott Trudeau airport. Support for the expansion of the Parc-nature des Sources is massive.
But at this crucial juncture, the Aéroports de Montréal (ADM) has arbitrarily decided to work against this public and political consensus.
In its December 2024 submission to the Plan métropolitain d’aménagment et développement du Grand Montréal (PMAD), the ADM said that it “could not accept that the PMAD assign a nature park use to this area.” And the airport authority insisted it wanted 100 hectares for development in the very areas where there are species at risk, including the Monarch Butterfly breeding grounds.
To support its demand, the ADM has used the argument that birds present a danger to aircraft, even though the ADM, according to its own data, has conducted a successful wildlife management program for many years. Ornithologists consulted by Green Coalition confirm that the species inhabiting the Technoparc’s habitat are not the same species typically involved in bird strikes. As is pointed out in the Technoparc Oiseaux brief, many modern international airports worldwide, including Vancouver, Zurich and San Francisco, successfully manage proximity to wildlife conservation areas. In fact, they use this coexistence to promote their airports as modern and ecological.
On November 12, 2024, Green Coalition sent a letter to the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, as Minister responsible for Parks Canada, requesting that a national urban park be established in Montreal because we deeply believe that Technoparc is an ideal location for such a park. A National Urban Park is imperative for Montreal as a mark of respect and tribute to Montreal as the host city to the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.
We are encouraged by Minister Guilbeault’s reply to Green Coalition that discussions have been initiated with Quebec to advance the national urban parks program in Quebec, including a site for such a park in Greater Montreal.
We are further encouraged by the transfer of the former Pickering Airport lands from Transport Canada to Rouge National Urban Park under Parks Canada. The precedent has now been set to include the federally owned part of Technoparc, presently leased by the ADM, in a much-needed national urban park in Montreal.
The ADM wants the City of Montreal and the CMM to go completely backwards and erase the progress that we all have made. That is unacceptable. We must, at this critical time, pursue our most needed environmental objectives. That is why we are asking the Government of Canada, Transport Canada and the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change to support Montreal and its citizens by protecting and conserving the Technoparc lands.
Parc-nature des Sources must become Montreal’s National Urban Park. The honour and prestige of Montreal, host city to the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, must be upheld.
Yours sincerely,
Green Coalition Technoparc Team:
Clifford Lincoln, former environment minister
Sylvia Oljemark, founding president, Green Coalition
Carole Reed, president, Green Coalition
David Fletcher, cofounder, vice-president, Green Coalition
Patrick Barnard, Coalition Verte, journalist
Cc
The Honourable Anita Anand, Minister of Transport and Internal Trade
The Honourable Steven Guibeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change
The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, leadership candidate, Liberal Party of Canada
The Honourable Karina Gould, leadership candidate, Liberal Party of Canada
Frank Baylis, former MP, leadership candidate, Liberal Party of Canada
Mark Carney, leadership candidate, Liberal Party of Canada
Valérie Plante, Mayor of Montreal
Feature image: Technoparc pond, by Ilana Block
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The Green Coalition represents more than 80 citizen groups dedicated to the protection and restoration of the Environment. Founded in 1988.
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