Green Coalition announces
extraordinary conference
The environmental group demands a public inquiry into procedures at the Ministry of Environment
Montreal, February 28, 2020
In a stunning development, Quebec’s Ministry of the Environment has admitted in open court that it has never refused a developer’s request for a Certificate of Authorization. Never!
This admission was made during the Green Coalition’s injunction proceedings to stop the destruction of the Technoparc wetlands, home to the largest variety and density of birds on the Island of Montréal. The Ministry of the Environment issued Certificates of Authorization (CA) permitting development on Technoparc based on bird counts conducted by the developer in the dead of winter when numbers and varieties are at the lowest possible ebb.
The Ministry’s admission reveals a terrible scandal at the heart of our environmental protection bureaucracy. We now know that it works for developers, not for the environment and not for the public.
The Green Coalition demands an immediate public inquiry into the Ministry’s procedures for issuing Certificates of Authorization.
Please join the Green Coalition on Saturday, March 14 from 10 am to 4 pm at the Maison du développement durable, 50 St. Catherine Street W. in Montreal, for a conference that will bring together environmental groups across the Montreal region to discuss how the Quebec government has failed in its mandate to protect the environment.
The Coalition’s lawyers at Colby Monet will present an overview of the Technoparc case, including the other shocking admissions made by the Ministry of the Environment during the hearing. A review of the government procedures for issuing Certificates of Authorization requested by developers, together with a roadmap for groups seeking to obtain information and avoid environmental destruction will be presented. Participants at the conference will be invited to describe their specific experience with destructive Certificates of Authorization.
Aerial view of Technoparc wetlands, courtesy of the Green Coalition – Click for larger image
The Green Coalition invites all the environmental groups to support its call for the City of Montréal to abandon the Technoparc development, reverse the damage done, and its demand that the Minister rescind the Certificates of Authorization issued to the developers.
The Ministry of the Environment must fix its broken system for issuing Certificates of Authorization. It must preserve and defend the environment. The conference will conclude with a planning session on how groups can unite in this purpose.
The Coalition will also invite all the groups to endorse its demand for a public investigation by adding their group’s name to the document which will be presented at the event.
Green Coalition extraordinary conference
Saturday, March 14, from 10 am to 4 pm
at la Maison du développement durable
50 St. Catherine Street W. in Montreal
For more information, contact Campbell Stuart at 514 927-7802 (cell)
Feature image: Aerial view of the Technoparc taken in October 2017, courtesy of Technoparc Montréal
Read other articles about the Technoparc Wetlands
The Green Coalition is a non-profit association of groups and individuals with a mandate to promote the conservation, protection and restoration of the environment and the wise use of green and blue spaces.
This open, public conference will be the first of its kind in Quebec to discuss Certificates of Authorisation (CAs)…They are the permits that a promoter legally requires to build on a wetland, for example, and they are issued by the Ministry of the Environment. The supervision of wetlands has totally failed on Montreal Island — and elsewhere. Canada has lost 90% of its urban wetlands because of an inherently flawed, non-functioning system of regulation. This conference promises to be a real eye-opener for both the public and activists.
“The Ministry of the Environment issued Certificates of Authorization (CA) permitting development on Technoparc based on bird counts conducted by the developer in the dead of winter when numbers and varieties are at the lowest possible ebb.” Bird counts conducted by the developer? Isn’t this a conflict of interest? The counts should have been done by an independent third party.
Governments are supposed to work for us. What the ministry is doing is a very serious breach of democracy. Citizens want their natural areas preserved. A survey done for the City of Montreal in 2004 found that 80% of the population considered it extremely important to conserve our natural milieu and two thirds judged that not enough was being preserved.