Protect the Technoparc and its birds
142 bird species can be observed there, including at least 10 vulnerable species and 33 species recognized by Environment Canada as “priority”. Birds are drawn to marshes and wooded areas, and monarch butterflies to a field of milkweed.
However, this place is located in an industrial sector: the Technoparc in the borough of Saint-Laurent, northwest of the Montréal-Trudeau airport, very close to a future station of the Metropolitan express network (REM).
For several years, residents have been asking that these green spaces, which belong to the federal government, the City and private owners, be preserved in their natural state.
Projet Montréal, the party of Valérie Plante, has announced its intention to triple the protected areas in this sector, to increase them to 175 hectares, an area almost equivalent to that of Mount Royal Park (190 hectares).
PHOTO ANDREJ IVANOV, SPECIAL COLLABORATION, PRESS ARCHIVES
Saint-Laurent Borough Technoparc, last August
“It is a green lung, but it is also a place that abounds in biodiversity”, underlines Robert Beaudry, candidate for the post of councilor of the city of the district of Saint-Jacques for the Project Montreal party, and who was responsible for large parks in the recent Plante administration.
The fact remains that we must convince the federal government to protect the land that belongs to it. Projet Montréal promises to continue working in this direction.
Ensemble Montréal is also making it a commitment in its electoral program. “This project is one of our priorities,” says Alan DeSousa, outgoing mayor of the borough of Saint-Laurent and candidate for Ensemble Montréal.
The Technoparc Oiseaux citizens’ group, which has long campaigned for the protection of this territory, was “encouraged” by the announcement of Projet Montréal. “But we will be completely relieved when the whole ecological sector will be protected and officially registered in the regulations”, reacted the organization in a press release.
Hunters who are not welcome
In the woods of the west of the island of Montreal, in particular in the Anse-à-l’Orme park, in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, it is not uncommon to hear the sound of blows. fire. This is not a shootout between gangs, but hunters who stalk their prey, deer or ducks.
For the outgoing mayoress of this municipality, Paola Hawa, it is unacceptable that hunting can be practiced in a park, near houses and a school.
When it’s hunting season, you can hear it. And people want to know where we are going with this file.
Paola Hawa, outgoing mayor of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue
The problem is that provincial law allows license holders to hunt on the territory of the island. Some municipalities, such as Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, prohibit the use of a firearm or arrow bow within 2 km of a building, but this by-law is difficult to apply: the City Police Department de Montréal (SPVM) says it does not have the necessary resources to intervene.
In February, at the initiative of Mme Hawa, the Montreal agglomeration council adopted a resolution asking the Quebec government to ban hunting on the island of Montreal.
Response from the Minister of Forests, Wildlife and Parks, Pierre Dufour: municipalities already have the regulatory levers necessary to limit hunting on their territory. He therefore does not intend to reopen the law.
Paola Hawa nevertheless intends to continue to put pressure on Quebec.
His opponent in the mayoral race, city councilor Francis Juneau, voted against a city council resolution calling for changes to the hunting grounds. It is not because he supports the hunt, he assures: “I had questions, I wanted to know if the resolution included the whole archipelago, and unfortunately I did not receive an answer”, he explains.
He regrets that the opposing camp is using the result of this vote to “discredit” him.
PHOTO NINON PEDNAULT, PRESS ARCHIVES
Flooding in the Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough, in spring 2017
Better combat flooding
During the 2017 floods, dozens of residences in the Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough were flooded with water. During the 2019 flood, because of the preventive measures taken previously, the damage was less significant.
But it is the borough that had to take these measures, underlines the mayor of Pierrefonds-Roxboro, Dimitrios Jim Beis, candidate for the Ensemble Montreal party. “The problems that we had identified in 2017, we solved them almost alone, in the borough, with our experts,” he says.
The borough erected modular walls and rented around thirty pumps in the spring of 2019. But these solutions, which cost $ 7 million, were only temporary.
[En prévision de futures inondations,] it takes permanent solutions. We need low walls, natural dikes or pumping stations. But the file is not moving forward with the City.
Dimitrios Jim Beis, outgoing mayor of the Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough
If the 2019 flood caused less damage to residences in the area, it is rather “thanks to the leadership of the city-center and the firefighters”, retorts the candidate of Projet Montréal for mayor of Pierrefonds-Roxboro, Patricio Cruz- Guttierrez.
What is Projet Montréal’s solution to reduce the impact of flooding? The development of the large western park, replies Mr. Cruz-Guttierrez.
The outgoing mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, announced in 2019 the creation of this huge 3,000 hectare park. It must include several existing nature parks, including those of Anse-à-l’Orme, Bois-de-l’Île-Bizard and Cap-Saint-Jacques. Montreal received $ 50 million from Ottawa for the purchase of land and for flood control work.
Dimitrios Jim Beis laughs when he hears this answer. “It’s okay to protect these grounds,” he said. But that is not what will prevent flooding of houses all over the territory. I don’t understand why they say that. ”