Letter from the Green
Coalition to Mark Carney
“Mister Prime Minister, please save Technoparc’s wildlife and wildspaces.”
May 22, 2025
Green Coalition’s Technoparc Team has written a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney:
May 14, 2025
Dear Prime Minister Carney:
We write to you as the Technoparc Team of Green Coalition, a non-partisan environmental group in the Montreal region. One of us, our President Carole Reed, has already written you a letter of congratulations for your electoral win, and we, of course, join in that wish for your continuing success.
As you know, the Technoparc ecosystem is an invaluable 215-hectare complex of marshes, forest, and meadows north of Montreal’s airport where the Canadian government, through Transport Canada, owns 167 hectares of the total natural system.
There is a very large consensus in Montreal, and beyond, that the Technoparc nature area be completely preserved. On March 21st, 2025, Dorval City Mayor Marc Doret, and Saint-Laurent borough Mayor Alan DeSousa, joined with Alex Norris, Montreal Executive Committee member responsible for large parks, as well as Quebec’s former Minister of the Environment, Clifford Lincoln, to publicly call in a press conference for the conservation of the whole system. Also, 25 municipalities and boroughs, representing 1.4 million citizens in the region, have passed resolutions calling for full preservation of the Technoparc ecosystem.
Montreal is the home of the UN Secretariat for Biological Diversity, so this union of voices has a special resonance.
On April 15, 2025, in Saint-Eustache, you were asked by the press about the 2021 federal government promise to create 15 new national urban parks.
You responded, Mr.Prime Minister, that this promise now was 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, you 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.”
We commend your engagement.
And we wish to remind you of the 200 scientists in the Montreal region who have written about the Technoparc’s unparalleled biodiversity.
We are aware of and share your personal commitment to environmental, social and governance goals (ESG).
If the federal government puts its full weight behind the preservation of the whole Technoparc ecosystem, the effort will not involve any land purchase, because Canada is already the owner of the crucial land. There is thus a huge environmental gain in this conservation. The social benefit to citizens will be enormous, a fact reflected in the stand taken by local politicians here.
And in terms of governance, the federal government would become a true environmental leader in the Montreal area.
We believe that you, as Prime Minister, can take the lead to drive us all toward the conservation of the unique Technoparc ecosystem. And we look forward to working with you in the achievement of this goal.
Yours sincerely,
Green Coalition Technoparc Team:
Clifford Lincoln, former environment minister
Sylvia Oljemark, founding president, Green Coalition
Carole Reed, president, Green Coalition
David Fletcher, cofounder, vice-president, Green Coalition
Patrick Barnard, journalist, Green Coalition
Feature image: Étang aux Hérons – Technoparc Oiseaux
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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.
I applaud the tireless efforts of all involved in trying to save this treasure trove of flora and fauna on the doorstep of Montrealers! Please, Prime Minister Carney, protect this jewel for future generations.