It is interesting to note that the outgoing CEO Philippe Rainville, in the interview he recently granted to the Duty, makes no mention of the responsibilities of Aéroports de Montréal (ADM) towards its neighbors and the thousands of citizens who live under the air corridors attached to Montréal-Trudeau. A concept in our opinion neglected by this private organization: social responsibility.
As early as the 1990s, citizens raised the important issue of aeronautical pollution with the Government of Canada, which owns the site, and with ADM. A far-sighted civic action that has been ignored. The citizens’ committee Les pollurés de Montréal-Trudeau continues the work begun to civilize the impact of civil aviation on the quality of life of thousands of Montrealers.
The polluted note, as of 2013, that the devolution of major Canadian airports to private groups by Ottawa constitutes a complete surrender of the powers of Parliament, in an obsolete federal legal framework, with regard to the impacts of air movements on the populations living around them. airports and under air corridors.
In 2014, two researchers from the Institute for the governance of private and public organizations, MM. Michel Nadeau and Jacques Roy examine the management of major Canadian airports. In their report, they conclude on the lack of transparency, the absence of accountability and the absence of an independent strategic review of the major planned investments.
What future does the managers of Aéroports de Montréal have in store for us? The demands made by Mr. Rainville, who will leave his post at the end of the summer, after six years at the helm of ADM, apparently have no limits. A dozen more boarding gates, which is very similar to the project for a new terminal announced in 2018, a bill of a few billion dollars and even more air movements in the sky of Montreal. A new financing structure, a new legal status, the opening of the lease, which acts as a contract with Transport Canada, a rent waiver: a cat would not find her kittens. Not to mention dissatisfaction with the road network, which the Quebec government paid up to $240 million for the Dorval interchange.
Mr. Rainville implores citizens to wake up. We fully agree that the awakening should take place, but now, not in five years, and to see things clearly in this airport management. Because it is now that the voice of Montréal-Trudeau’s neighbors must be heard, as must the scientific facts that establish the negative impacts of air pollution on the neighboring populations.
This awakening also urgently concerns the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, and all members of the House of Commons responsible for the health of citizens and air transport. Mr. Trudeau regularly advocates for science and facts in defense of health. It is high time to apply these principles to the impacts of civil aviation on the health of citizens.
The objectives of the polluted at Montréal-Trudeau are the substantial improvement of the sound environment, respect for people’s sleep (through a curfew from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.) and the improvement of the quality of air ; three elements hit hard by the closure of the Mirabel airport and by the concentration of flights in Dorval (1998-2004).