While our large cities lack housing, green spaces and arable land, what does the City of Laval decide to do with a magnificent 2.2 million square feet of land that it owns?
• Read also: Green light for a huge film studio project in Laval on arable land
It transforms it into a 100% industrial zone.
For what?
To be able to sell it at a low price to the developer Michel Trudel, who wants to build “the largest cinema complex in the world” there, according to his words.
Expired
It would be a great economic project if it were 1990. But not in 2024.
Not with artificial intelligence (AI) which is revolutionizing film production as we know it.
Not in the context of climate extremes, knowing how the availability of uncontaminated green space will play a critical role in the water and air cycle as well as our ability to produce food locally.
A bad economic choice
In terms of economic development, would it have been wise in 2000 to bank on a DVD manufacturing company when online movie viewing was beginning?
Obviously not!
Investing hundreds of millions of dollars in a gigantic concrete infrastructure that is likely to be obsolete in a decade is a bad choice.
The ability to create images and sounds using AI is such that even professionals get confused. And that’s just the beginning!
What was once done in the studio, at great expense, creating many jobs, can today be produced virtually by a few people behind screens.
If I were an investor in the “Cité du cinéma”, I would withdraw my marbles before losing them! Such a project is “past date”.
City of Laval
This is not a good economic or ecological choice for the City of Laval either.
The City claims that the sale of this land to Mr. Trudel would bring in $32 million, followed by approximately $3 million in taxes annually. Maybe that’s true. But only if the project were to survive despite AI.
You should know that uncontaminated land of this size close to metropolitan infrastructure is becoming increasingly rare.
The people of Laval are therefore the owners of a jewel which will undoubtedly gain in financial value, and which also has immense potential to generate social and environmental wealth. Not just economical!
Let’s think about creating a nurturing eco-district. We could build densified ecological housing there while preserving at least 50% of the land area as green space, part of which could be covered with edible species: fruit trees and shrubs, organic permaculture vegetable gardens, etc.
Let’s also think about the potential of the circular economy, biomimicry, phytoremediation technologies, etc.
There is no shortage of projects with high economic, ecological and social potential, as long as we choose them and invest in them.
Let’s hope that the population of Laval and its elected officials wake up while there is still time.
Unless in the meantime, investors realize their mistake and invest elsewhere. It would be smarter than betting on a future white elephant.