Traffic may be disrupted in the Montreal area for the duration of COP15, in early December, in particular due to the closure of the Place d’Armes metro station and several traffic lanes around the Palais des Congrès.
Posted at 2:50 p.m.
The 15e Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which will welcome between 10,000 and 15,000 delegates in Montreal from December 7 to 19, will entail a major police deployment and exceptional security measures.
The perimeter of the Palais des Congrès will be surrounded by high fences, which will be installed as of November 7. The installation will last about twenty days. These fences will cut off one traffic lane on each of the streets surrounding the meeting place (Saint-Urbain, Viger, Saint-Antoine and Jean-Paul Riopelle).
In addition, during the installation phase, these streets could be completely closed at certain times.
From 1er on December 20, the Place d’Armes metro station, located in the Palais des Congrès, will be closed. Metro trains will not stop there.
The closure of the Ville-Marie tunnel, which passes under the Palais des Congrès, is however not planned for the duration of the event.
This information was transmitted to the media on Wednesday, during a technical briefing attended by the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the City of Montreal and the Montreal Transport Company (STM).
The police indicated that preparations were underway for the implementation of security measures during the event, which will be the most important of the last 20 years in Montreal. However, it was impossible to know how many staff will be deployed on the ground.
Law enforcement did not yet know which heads of state would be present at COP15, but they expect to have to form a few security motorcades between PE Trudeau Airport and the Palais des Congrès to accompany dignitaries.
More details to come.