The mowing by Aéroports de Montréal (ADM) of a wasteland where a citizen group had identified 4,000 milkweed plants that serve as food for monarch butterflies will be the subject of a meeting requested by the federal Minister of Transport.
Updated yesterday at 7:57 p.m.
“Our government plans to hold a meeting soon between the minister and the airport to discuss the situation,” he told The Press the office of Transport Minister Omar Alghabra on Tuesday.
According to the firm, Minister Alghabra “has already written directly to the CEO of ADM to express his concerns, request details on the next steps in this file and reiterate the urgency of the situation. Our office does weekly follow-ups with ADM to learn about their plan and urge them to move forward on this file.”
The firm notes that ADM created last year spaces dedicated to monarch butterflies in the ecological park of Sources, near the Montreal-Trudeau airport. “It’s a good start, but we reiterate to ADM that it needs to do more. The Ministère des Transports owns the land, which has been leased to ADM since 1992.
Dissatisfied elected officials
ADM’s explanations concerning the recent mowing of an immense natural environment the size of 10 football fields, rich in biodiversity, do not satisfy Quebec elected officials, who are asking the federal government to act quickly to protect all of this “urban lung”, the last large unprotected green space on the island of Montreal.
“While Quebecers were celebrating Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Aéroports de Montréal was mowing,” castigated Marwah Rizqy, provincial deputy for Saint-Laurent, in a press briefing on Tuesday.
Mme Rizqy noted that it is “wrong” to say that the mown spot had no ecological value. “To have gone walking on the spot, there are really a lot of birds, a lot of biodiversity,” she said.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY TECHNOPARC OISEAUX
The “monarch field” before the cut
The 19-hectare area mown by ADM is part of a huge 200-hectare green zone which adjoins the Montreal-Trudeau airport, and which is “as big as Mount Royal Park”, she added.
“It’s one of the last fields and it acts to temper the heat islands that we see everywhere in Montreal. The federal government wants to create 15 parks per province by 2030, and for Montreal, it’s the ideal place to do it, it’s the last place where we can do it. If nothing is done, we will lose this opportunity. »
PHOTO PROVIDED BY TECHNOPARC OISEAUX
The “monarch field” after the cut
Alexandre Boulerice, Member of Parliament for Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie and Deputy Leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP), recalled that ADM’s primary mission was to operate an airport.
“So find your passengers’ luggage, and afterwards, you will take care of wetlands and green spaces for the well-being of birds and monarchs,” he quipped.
The office of the federal Minister of the Environment, Steven Guilbeault, did not respond to the request for a reaction from The Presstuesday.