Conservation groups, environmentalists and Quebec’s former environment minister are demanding that plans by Aéroports de Montréal authorities to sub-lease some green space for development be stopped.
They also want their demand to become an election issue.
In a copy obtained by Global News, Lincoln writes that he is “totally opposed to the construction of an industrial plant on sensitive ecological lands controlled by the federal government.”
The letter, dated Sept. 1, continues with Lincoln appealing to Trudeau to “once again to stop the destruction of this irreplaceable habitat.”
Global News caught up with Lincoln Monday morning.
“I mean it’s about time our MPs here started to stand up and realize that this is unacceptable. So we want to provoke them, we want to embarrass them to make sure that this land is protected,” he told Global News.
In all, 144 hectares of land are available for commercial or industrial development according to the 2013-2033 Aéroports de Montréal Master Plans
Medicom, the manufacturer of surgical masks, already has plans to build another plant on some of the green space but final authority has not been approved.
Still, conservationists complain the Trudeau airport has not made a convincing case to sub-lease the land for commercial or industrial development.
“We would like them to show the public, in terms of their transparency, that indeed there is a pressing need to develop on this space,” Katherine Collin, of Technoparc Oiseaux, told Global News.
Alexandre Boulerice, the incumbent MP (NDP, Rosemont—La Petite Patrie) insists that an NDP government would preclude future development on the land that is home to vast wildlife, wetlands and a vibrant ecosystem.
“We would take the phone and talk to Montreal airport and try to give them good reasons not to go forward.” Boulerice, told Global News.
Anne-Sophie Hamel, a spokesperson for the Aérports de Montréal, sent an email to Global News on Sept. 1 stating that, “Every construction project carried out on the grounds of the airport site goes through the same rigorous (environmental) process.”