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Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault refused a request by Quebec conservation groups to issue a special designation to prevent the destruction of the so-called Monarch fields north of Trudeau International Airport to make way for the new Medicom mask production plant.

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The fields are an important feeding ground and habitat for endangered monarch butterflies, according to the groups. There are dozens of possible locations nearby for the mask factory that wouldn’t encroach on the 215 hectares of marshes, forests and meadows of Dorval and the Montreal borough of Saint-Laurent, which they call generally the “Technoparc lands”. .

The Green Coalition and TechnoparcOiseaux are campaigning for the protection of this area which, according to them, is the last large unprotected ecosystem on the island of Montreal. About 60 hectares of this land are located in the Technoparc de Montréal and controlled by the city of Montreal, but most of it is owned by the federal government and is managed by Aéroports de Montréal (ADM).

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On Tuesday, the Green Coalition received a letter from Guilbeault indicating that “after careful consideration of the information provided by the proponent (a subsidiary of Medicom Meltech Innovation Canada Inc.), the comments of the federal authorities, the (Ministère de l’Environnement du Quebec), Aéroports de Montréal, and potentially affected Indigenous peoples, and the concerns expressed in your letter, I have decided that the project does not warrant designation under subsection 9 (1) of the Assessment Act. ‘impact.

Guilbeault did not respond to requests for comment from the Montreal Gazette. A spokesperson for the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada confirmed that Guilbeault determined on November 21 “that the Meltech industrial building project proposed by Meltech Innovation Canada Inc. does not warrant designation under the Act. on impact assessment ”.

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The federal government has yet to approve the Medicom project and no work has started, but Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada announced $ 29 million in funding for the project last June.

A spokesperson for the Green Coalition said it was not too late for the federal government to move the project to an area of ​​less ecological value.

“The federal government could assert itself and save the whole region,” said Patrick Barnard, member of the board of directors of Green Coalition. “This might involve breaking the lease with ADM. But they could compensate ADM for the loss of income ”

Katherine Collin is spokesperson for TechnoparcOiseaux, a group of ornithologists which now has nearly 4,000 members, while calls for the preservation of the popular ornithological area have multiplied in recent years.

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She said the Canadian Impact Assessment Agency’s analysis report, on which Guilbeault based his decision, does not include a proper and independent scientific inventory of the region’s biodiversity.

“We believe that a thorough and rigorous inventory will lead to conservation grounds for the site,” she said on Wednesday.

The idea of ​​keeping most or all of the Technoparc land has received strong support in recent weeks.

Alexandre Boulerice, Deputy Leader of the New Democratic Party and Member of Parliament for the Montreal riding of Rosemont — La-Petite-Patrie, wrote to Guilbeault and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra on November 15 to express his unconditional support for the conservation of the region.

Boulerice reminded ministers of the Liberal government’s promise to protect 30% of Canada’s natural spaces by 2030. “As you know, protected areas should be those that are the most threatened and the richest in biodiversity. Finding these spaces in southern areas is difficult, even more so in urban areas. The Technoparc is one of these rare earths and it must be protected.

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Mayor Valérie Plante announced during her re-election campaign that her administration would work with the federal government to obtain the protection of 175 hectares of the territory in question.

Collin of TechnparcOiseaux said that the refusal of the designation by Guilbeault is just a setback, not the last word. She called the nomination a “long shot”. Her group will continue to fight for the protection of the entire area, and she hopes Guilbeault is working behind the scenes to convince her cabinet colleagues to join in the conservation of the entire site.

“We are disappointed but we remain hopeful because this is not the last word. We can only hope that Minister Guilbeault will do what is necessary for Montreal and Canada in general in his new position.

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