Rouyn-Noranda is currently demolishing its airport’s “temporary” terminal, built in 2019 at a cost of $2.1 million, a decision that raises questions about sustainable development.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
The building was built to allow the repair and expansion of the main terminal of the Abitibi airport, which reopened last July.
Quebec and Ottawa had absorbed two-thirds of the construction costs, with a $1.4 million grant from the Building Canada-Quebec Fund; the City of Rouyn-Noranda had disbursed $700,000.
The demolition cost $123,755, 80% of which is funded by the Regional Air Transport Initiative program, the city says.
“Building a building, which cost 2 million in public funds, only to demolish it after three years, and therefore waste tons of building materials in a context of overexploitation of natural resources, it is absurd”, estimates Amélie Côté, analyst reduced to the source of Equiterre.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Amélie Côté, source reduction analyst at Équiterre
We should collectively stop taking this kind of decision lightly and work upstream to avoid such situations.
Amélie Côté, source reduction analyst at Équiterre
think ahead
The construction of temporary buildings that are not “disposable” is however possible.
“A temporary building that was planned to be temporary and dismantled, in itself that’s not a problem,” says Hortense Montoux, project manager at the Center for Intersectoral Studies and Research in Circular Economy at the School of Technology. superior.
“We are working on adaptable and removable buildings”, she illustrates, specifying that this type of construction needs to be thought out in advance, from the design of a project.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY HORTENSE MONTOUX
Hortense Montoux, project manager at the Center for Intersectoral Studies and Research in the Circular Economy
In a logic of circular economy, we should no longer [faire des bâtiments temporaires qu’on démolit ensuite]but sometimes demolition and reuse have different economic logics.
Hortense Montoux, project manager at the Center for Intersectoral Studies and Research in the Circular Economy
“Affordable” decision
The construction of a building that would be demolished three years later was “an affordable and accepted solution after having been duly analysed”, told The Press Émilie Lord, spokesperson for the Quebec Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility (MTMDQ), which oversees the Building Canada-Quebec Fund.
Have sustainable development criteria been taken into consideration? The MTMDQ did not answer the question, but indicated that the terminal had “not been designed” to last a long time.
In the eyes of Mayor Diane Dallaire, demolition was the most “promising” choice.
“It was the best decision for the wallet of the citizens,” she told The Press.
The City justifies the construction and demolition of a temporary terminal by the fact that the main terminal had to remain “exactly on the same site”, due to its positioning in relation to the traffic lanes leading to the runway.
PHOTO CHRISTIAN LEDUC, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
The new terminal at Rouyn-Noranda airport
The possibility of using construction trailers for the temporary terminal was evaluated, but it was “not retained, because there were too many operational security constraints”, indicated to The Press Director of Communications, Anne-Marie Nadeau.
The dismantling of the building to move it was also evaluated, but this option was ruled out “due to the significant costs and numerous technical constraints”, she adds.
However, the City claims to have recovered the built-in furniture, the doors and windows, the toilets, sinks and urinals, the surveillance system and the cameras, the air conditioning system and the exterior sheet metal.
The rest will be sent to the landfill, confirmed the company Construction Normand Martel, which began the demolition in the last days, the City having not imposed conditions of reuse in the contract which it granted to it.
Bickering around the sale of the building
The airline company Propair is offended by the demolition of the “temporary” terminal at Rouyn-Noranda airport, which it would have liked to acquire to support the growth of its aircraft charter activities and develop a flight school. ‘aviation. However, negotiations between the Rouynorandian company and the municipal administration failed. The City says it offered to Propair to buy the building at a price “far below its construction cost”, but affirms that the company rather asked him to give it to him in exchange for a symbolic consideration. The City will have to reimburse the subsidies obtained if it sells, rents or transfers the building and the Quebec Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility has refused to “relax” these conditions, saying that this type of clause is intended to ” ensure that the real beneficiary of the aid remains the same”. Propair did not call back The Press.
Landfill “not expensive enough”
There are many obstacles to dismantling in Quebec, including the fact that “landfilling is not yet expensive enough”, according to Hortense Montoux, from the Center for Intersectoral Studies and Research in the Circular Economy of the École de technologie superior. “It’s not competitive for the extra time you spend deconstructing, compared to demolishing and burying,” she says, adding that there are also challenges relating to the traceability of materials, to know their properties. and features, so you can reuse them with confidence. Perceptions are also an obstacle, she says: “Used materials are not yet perceived as resources, we are still in the perception of residual material. »
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- 150,000
- Number of passengers welcomed annually by Rouyn-Noranda airport
Source: City of Rouyn-Noranda