Minister of Transport
urged to meet with CMM

The Green Coalition sends a reminder to discuss the protection of the Technoparc ecosystem

November 12, 2025

On November 12, 2025, the Green Coalition Technoparc team sent an important letter to The Honourable Steven MacKinnon, Minister of Transport, to respectfully remind him that on October 7, 2025, the Montreal Metropolitan Community called upon him for an urgent meeting, as follows :

The Honourable Steven MacKinnon
Minister of Transport of Canada

The Montreal Metropolitan Community calls upon the Honourable Steven MacKinnon, Transport Minister, for an urgent meeting to establish joint strategies to conserve Montreal’s last large ecosystem north of Trudeau Airport.

November 12, 2025

Dear Minister Steven MacKinnon:

Green Coalition’s Technoparc Team, like many groups in Montreal’s civil society, is very cognizant and appreciative of the letter written to you on Oct. 7, 2025, by Massimo Iezzoni, Director General of the Montreal Metropolitan Community (CMM) and Émilie Thullier, then-chairman of the City of Montreal’s executive committee.

These two leaders and the CMM speak for a huge consensus in the Montreal region in favour of the complete conservation of the Technoparc wetland ecosystem of 230 hectares north of this city’s airport.

Think of who is included in this consensus — the 82 municipalities in the CMM, including the City of Montreal, the City of Dorval, the borough of Saint-Laurent, as well as the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke, more than 200 scientists, along with the environmental groups Technoparc Oiseaux, Mères au front and Green Coalition.

In the words of the CMM letter, “Ce territoire, d’une richesse écologique remarquable, est aujourd’hui menacé par des projets qui entraîneraient sa destruction, malgré un consensus unanime en faveur de sa conservation de la société civile, des citoyens, des chercheurs et des institutions municipales.”

Recently, significant damage to this remarkable ecosystem has been attributed to Aéroports de Montréal. This unfortunate situation prompted the CMM to call upon you, Honourable Minister, in the October 7 letter, for an early meeting to discuss joint strategies that can be put in place to ensure the conservation of these invaluable natural spaces.

The CMM deserves our gratitude and much credit for this excellent letter, which summarizes so clearly and convincingly the case for the conservation of the Technoparc lands.

Furthermore, in a government letter dated November 3, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture, Parks Canada, Stephen Guilbeault, communicated with Alan DeSousa, the newly re-elected Mayor of the borough of Saint-Laurent and a strong proponent of making the whole of the Technoparc ecosystem a Canadian national park. Guilbeault pointed out that the “designation of national urban parks is a highly collaborative and partner-focused process.” And “Parks Canada is aware of the interest of many groups and municipal administrations in the eventual designation of a national urban park [for the Technoparc ecosystem ] in your borough. Discussions between Parks Canada and the province of Quebec are still necessary to confirm whether this type of collaboration is possible and if it could respond to the expectations of the parties concerned.”

We support Minister Guilbeault’s promotion of this collaboration.

If we may, we also want to remind you of two important facts.

First, Transport Canada owns nearly all of the remarkable land in question, so it is important to note that conservation status for the land involves no cost of acquisition. The Federal Cabinet can act to fulfill its own proclaimed environmental goals of natural space conservation simply by vigorously using the power of ownership it already has.

Secondly, on April 15, 2025, in Saint-Eustache, Prime Minister Carney was asked by the press about the 2021 federal government promise to create 15 new national urban parks. The Prime Minister responded then that this promise is not “old,” saying, “ It’s not an old promise if I make it. It is a new promise.” And specifically, in reference to the Technoparc ecosystem, he observed: “It is one of the areas under consideration. We are going to drive a quick public process to make those determinations. This commitment on 15 national urban parks is part of a much bigger commitment on nature and biodiversity that will help drive us toward what was a commitment made in Montreal for 30 per cent preservation by 2030.”

In light of the Prime Minister’s commitment, Green Coalition’s Technoparc Team thinks the results of the requested meeting between you and the CMM, envisaged in their letter, are extremely important, and we would like to know the results of this imminent meeting.

In your capacity as Minister of Transport, you have the capacity to really make a difference for the natural environment here in the Montreal region. So does cabinet. So does the Prime Minister himself.

We do believe that you and your government must take the serious measures required to conserve the Technoparc ecosystem. A failure to so act would ripple throughout the Montreal region, which is close to 50 per cent of the population of Québec.

Honourable minister, we trust that you will succeed in protecting Montreal’s environment, a step that would generate huge goodwill towards your government. And all would applaud such a result.

Yours sincerely,

Green Coalition Technoparc Team:

Clifford Lincoln, former Quebec environment minister
Sylvia Oljemark, founding president, Green Coalition
Charlie MacLeod and Carole Reed, co-presidents, Green Coalition
David Fletcher, cofounder, vice-president, Green Coalition
Patrick Barnard, Green Coalition, journalist

CCs:

The Right Honourable Mark Carney
Prime Minister of Canada

The Honourable Steven Guilbeault
Minister of Canadian Culture and Identity, Parks Canada and Quebec Lieutenant

The Honourable Julie Dabrusin
Minister of Environment and Climate Change

The Honourable Nathalie Provost
Secretary of State (Nature)

Bernard Drainville
Ministre de l’Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques, de la Faune et des Parcs

Massimo Iezzoni
Directeur général, Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal

Soraya Martinez Ferrada
Mairesse de Montréal

Maël Bureau-Blouin
Directeur des relations gouvernementales de la CMM

Feature image: Ilana Block

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The Green Coalition represents more than 80 citizen groups dedicated to the protection and restoration of the Environment. Founded in 1988.