Montreal politicians are calling on Canada to protect one of the city’s last green spaces after environmentalists discovered that a part of the area known as the Technopark was mowed down by Aéroports de Montréal (ADM).
The land is owned by the federal government, but is currently being leased by ADM.
“If we want to make sure we can fight climate change properly, we need to lead by example and this is the perfect time to do it,” said Marwah Rizqy, a member of the Saint-Laurent National Assembly.
Rizqy and MP Alexandre Boulerice were forced to speak out after environmentalists monitoring the green space noticed that some of the land had been cut off over the St. Jean-Baptiste bank holiday weekend.
They say this eliminated thousands of flowers that monarch butterflies, an endangered species, would feed on in the coming months.
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“The only thing they left behind were trees,” said Benoit Gravel, a member of Technoparc Oiseaux. “Everything has been totally flattened.”
They also claim that the environment for the birds that nested in the area was destroyed.
“I’ve seen two nests that I was going to see every weekend,” Gravel said. “There is nothing left there. What happened to these babies?
Rizqy and Boulerice want Canada’s transport and environment ministers to intervene by changing the terms of land leases.
“Mr. Alghabra, Mr. Guilbault, take responsibility,” Boulerice said. “There is federal legislation to protect birds, animals and butterflies and no one can do it except you. So you have to step in. If you need to change the lease agreement with Aéroports de Montréal, do it. If you need to create a national park there, a federal park, do it, but you cannot say that we are in favor of biodiversity and do nothing on the island of Montreal”.
Federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra’s office told Global News in a statement that the minister has already written directly to ADM’s chief executive to express his concerns and request details on the next steps in the dossier.
“Under the terms of its lease, ADM is independently responsible for airport land use decisions and development. However, the lease agreement with ADM includes environmental protection requirements. In this sense, ADM is obliged to ensure the protection of the environment in the leased premises and must comply with current environmental laws,” reads part of the statement.
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The ministry added that Minister Alghabra will meet with the ADM soon to discuss the situation.
For its part, ADM told Global News that it did not “raze” the land but only mowed the grass as part of what it calls normal maintenance. They also state that there are no monarch camps at that particular location.
“The geographic location of the site, its history, and the low presence of milkweed have no critical habitat attributes. In fact, there have been no reports of Monarch butterflies at this location on the Monarch Mission website in 2022,” he wrote in a statement to Global News.
Gravel calls ADM’s response “a joke.” He says no monarch butterflies have been seen in 2022 because their season is later in the year.
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.