Technoparc wetlands at risk
from airport privatization

Green Coalition calls on Prime Minister to establish National Urban Park for Montreal

October 1, 2026

On September 28, the Green Coalition Technoparc Team sent a letter to The Right Honourable Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, with an appeal to begin the designation process of the Technoparc Lands as a National Urban Park, as follows:

September 28, 2026

The Right Honourable Mark Carney
Prime Minister of Canada

Privatization of Montreal-Trudeau International Airport threatens Montreal’s last large unprotected ecosystem
A National Urban Park for Montreal must be established – NOW

Dear Prime Minister Mark Carney,

We are Green Coalition’s Technoparc Team – citizen volunteers who work to conserve Montreal’s last large unprotected wetland ecosystem – 230 irreplaceable hectares of forests, meadows, wetlands & riverine streams that flow to Rivière des Prairies and to the Saint-Laurence River. This work first began in the 1980s. In recent years, we have been strong advocates for the conservation of the ecosystem as a National Urban Park, within the purview of Parks Canada. The site, known simply as the Technoparc ecosystem, is located north of Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport and covers an area larger than Mount Royal Park. It is most important to understand that the ecosystem in question lies on unceded indigenous territory.

By far the largest portion of the Technoparc wetland ecosystem is Crown land, held in trust by the Government of Canada on behalf of all Canadians.

Green Coalition’s Technoparc Team is concerned that the recently announced Privatization of Montreal-Trudeau Airport will make the designation of the Technoparc ecosystem as a national urban park more difficult to achieve. We fear that private investors, with their development plans, building projects and money, will target the ecologically valuable spaces we have sought to protect for many long years. This grave new threat signals the ultimate destruction of the entire Technoparc ecosystem. And, the airport authority, Aéroports de Montréal (ADM) has a long lease with Transport Canada on the Crown land. That is a complication.

Therefore, we believe that the time has come for Montreal’s airport to emulate those modern airports around the world that coexist harmoniously with lands rich in wildlife habitats. Vancouver International, Canada’s second most important airport, is a superb comparable example. Located on Sea Island, the airport coexists with a designated conservation area, an exceptionally biodiverse habitat of local wildlife, birds and plant species. In the same way Aéroports de Montréal would operate in harmony with Montreal’s last large ecosystem, its forests, meadows and wetlands, its birds and wildlife – as Vancouver International has done successfully at Sea Island.

Mister Prime Minister, there is only one 100% certain way to conserve Montreal’s last large unprotected wetland ecosystem. Your Government must act now to conserve the ecosystem’s 230 hectares of vitally diverse and contiguous wildlife habitats, before it is too late. Long-delayed and long overdue, Montreal merits a national urban park. One of Canada’s great historic cities, Montreal is the cradle of French in North America, and host city to the Secretariat for the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, while its Technoparc ecosystem’s ecological attributes are outstanding. This natural space provides cooling in summer, air purification, carbon storage and flood protection, as well as shelter for at least 15 endangered and threatened species, including the treasured Monarch butterfly. And this is Quebec’s most popular birdwatching site.

Your Government must immediately establish permanent protective status for the Technoparc ecosystem – with its wildlife and wildspaces – as a National Urban Park.

An extraordinarily large consensus in the community here wants to permanently conserve the Technoparc wetland ecosystem – in its entirety. This consensus includes the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke, the Montreal Metropolitan Community, the City of Montreal, the City of Dorval, the borough of Saint-Laurent, 25 local boroughs and municipalities, more than 200 scientists, along with the environmental groups Technoparc Oiseaux, Mères au front, and Green Coalition and their many allies.

Mister Prime Minister, at your campaign stop on April 15, 2025, when questioned by the press, you gave us your “new promise” to create 15 new national urban parks. And you gave us hope – that the area north of Trudeau Airport is indeed in the running for protection as a national urban park. “It is one of the areas under consideration,” you pledged.

Now it is urgent – Green Coalition’s Technoparc Team, as well as civil society in this city, wants Montreal’s last ecosystem and its remarkably rich natural spaces conserved in perpetuity. Now it is urgent to create Montreal’s National Urban Park in order to safeguard these remarkable spaces from all development – particularly rampant development due to the privatization of Montreal’s airport.

Will you please help? We believe that you, as Prime Minister, can lead us all toward the conservation of the unique Technoparc ecosystem – for Montrealers and for all Canadians.

And we look forward to working with you in the achievement of this goal.

Yours sincerely,

Green Coalition Technoparc Team:
Clifford Lincoln, former Quebec environment minister
Sylvia Oljemark, founding president, Green Coalition
David Fletcher, co-founder, vice-president, Green Coalition
Patrick Barnard, journalist, Green Coalition

CCs:
The Honourable Steven MacKinnon
Minister of Transport of Canada

The Honourable Julie Dabrusin
Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada and Nature

The Honourable Nathalie Provost
Secretary of State (Nature)

Image: Technoparc wetland – TechnoparcOiseaux

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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.