Storm of protest
over Medicom plans
Aéroports de Montréal’s development project is a serious threat to the local ecosystem
By Patrick Barnard and Richard Swift
August 11, 2021
Trouble is brewing in Montreal. It involves what many see as a grave threat to a local ecosystem, the use of public monies, questionable decisions by the federal government, and a locally-based medical company that styles itself as pro-environment.
In the words of an old song, it’s time to stop, look, and see what is really going down. And the devil really is in the detail.
The proposed plans of Montreal’s Medicom Group to place an industrial plant to make material for medical masks on federally-owned land, or what is known as the “Monarch Butterfly Fields” north of Montreal’s airport, has caused this storm of protest – especially because the company will receive a grant of $29 million taxpayers dollars from Canada to support the project.

Monarch Butterfly Fields – Image: Jim Harris
Environmental groups, citizens, and journalists are stunned by what they feel they are seeing right before their eyes: public money being unnecessarily used to damage the environment. Complicating the situation is the fact that the Canadian government owns the butterfly fields but leases them to Montreal’s airport authority – Aéroports de Montréal (ADM). ADM does not own this land but wants desperately to use it as part of a larger scheme of airport development, all on public land that is environmentally more valuable than ever before because of the global climate crisis.
Environmental groups, citizens, and journalists are stunned by what they feel they are seeing right before their eyes: public money being unnecessarily used to damage the environment.
A cascade of press reports this summer, in French and English, came to a climax on July 23/ 24, 2021, when Sarah Leavitt of CBC filed a piece on Canada’s flagship television program, The National: The 10-day international effort to save monarch butterflies.
Leavitt has been following the fate of the monarch for some time, so she was well aware of the international preservation campaign. Also, two years ago, Montreal was the first Canadian city to receive “GOLD status” as a “Monarch-friendly community,” an initiative of the U.S. National Wildlife Federation “to restore and protect monarch habitat over the entire length of the butterfly’s corridor,” of which Montreal is an intrinsic part.
The TV film footage on the National showed reporter Leavitt walking in Montreal’s Monarch fields with Katherine Collin of Technoparc Oiseaux, the birding group that has brought the attention of all Montrealers to the invaluable integrated wetland system north of the airport. Leavitt and Collin talked as they walked in the grass:
Sarah Leavitt: “What’s it like for you when you see these butterflies – I saw one just now – flying around?”
Katherine Collin: “It’s an experience of awe. I’m impressed with the journey they make to come all the way from Mexico to Montreal… This is very troubling for us, that construction would move forward on a site where we have registered sightings of monarch butterflies.”

Tagged monarch butterfly – Image: © Derek Ramsey / derekramsey.com
Collin was talking about the arduous, four-generation, migration cycle from Mexico up the East Coast to Ontario and the Montreal area, then back down south again. Over the last three years, Technoparc Oiseaux has participated in the tagging program, MonarchWatch, run by the University of Kansas. In 2019, the birding group here tagged 25 Monarchs; in 2020, 50; and in 2021, “we are hoping to tag 100,” says Collin. The butterflies come to the Monarch Fields, where there are several thousand milkweed plants, the exclusive food of the extraordinary monarch.
‘Montreal was the first Canadian city to receive “GOLD status” as a “Monarch-friendly community,”… “to restore and protect monarch habitat over the entire length of the butterfly’s corridor,” of which Montreal is an intrinsic part.’
There you have the scene of this Montreal eco-drama: the territory, the butterflies, and the milkweed.
One further note. There has been a consultation on the project but it has been run by ADM, itself an interested party, under the aegis of the federal Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC). And citizens only found out because they wrote to Medicom directly; previously, no information had been widely disseminated about the consultation process.
The Monarch Butterfly Fields form a re-naturalized area of what used to be part of a golf course. Much of the milkweed is in the rectilinear territory but the construction of the proposed building is intended only for the northern part of the area. This small detail of exact location is an important element of the story.
On the official website of the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC), ADM has announced its plans: “YUL Montreal-Trudeau International Airport – Construction of an industrial building to produce nonwoven fabric for surgical masks… “Meltech Innovation Canada [a newly created manufacturing subsidiary of Medicom] plans the construction of an industrial building on the north part of lot 5 599 104 located on the Chemin de l’Aviation at YUL Montreal-Trudeau International Airport.”
What follows in the announcement is the key description that rationalizes and justifies this projected construction: “No wetlands, waterways, sensitive species or habitats or protected zones are present on the site.”
How is that judgment possible? To find out, citizens have to follow the paper trail…
‘There has been a consultation on the project but it has been run by ADM, itself an interested party, under the aegis of the federal Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) and no information had been widely disseminated about the consultation process.’
Because of the public protest, ADM decided to make two public gestures: 1. To extend the “consultation” for an extra month until August 24, 2021; 2. To make their environmental study public on August 2, 2021.

Monarch butterfly on milkweed – Image: Fritz Flohr Reynolds via StockPholio.net
On August 8, 2021, Technoparc Oiseaux issued a communiqué criticizing the environmental analysis done for ADM: “The current study appears strikingly incomplete and relies primarily on an unreleased study conducted for ADM in 2019 by WSP [an engineering services firm]. Among other shortcomings in the current study, bird surveys are incomplete, wetland-indicator species have not been thoroughly documented and the report refers to the vital green space of Monarch Fields as a ‘wasteland.’ ”
Our reading of the study strongly confirms the view of Technoparc Oiseaux.
The title of the document is “Ecological Study Chemin de l’Aviation Development (Dorval).” What is immediately striking is the rhetorical arrangement of the information. On P. ii and P. 17, the exact same array of ten mainly negative observations is repeated verbatim as “Summary” and “Conclusion.”
The effect of this catalogue of deficiencies, reiterated word for word, is to depreciate the territory. So, the less valuable the fields are pictured biologically, the more justified one is to build a plant upon them.
Beginning the list is the observation that the territory is “characterized by a history of anthropogenic activities.” In other words, human beings have used these fields in the past in ways – playing golf – that diminish their importance as a natural environment. Though there are wetlands nearby, they are not exactly on the site.
‘Technoparc Oiseaux issued a communiqué criticizing the environmental analysis done for ADM: “The current study appears strikingly incomplete… the report refers to the vital green space of Monarch Fields as a ”wasteland.’
But the fields are part of an integrated, riverine wetland system. So the proximate wetlands cannot be considered somehow irrelevant, especially since water seepage is a problem explicitly referred to in the document.
In the third item of both Summary and Conclusion, the Monarch Fields are pointedly described as a “grassy wasteland” – the dismissive characterization that Technoparc Oiseaux stresses and that clearly allows for the conclusion that no harm will occur from building an industrial facility upon them.
The sixth point stresses that the “site is generally not conducive to the presence of sensitive species.” Nor have visits “revealed the presence of sensitive species.” And the eighth point categorically states: “The site does not have the qualities of critical habitat for the monarch butterfly.” The catalogue of woes ends with the observations that “the site” is not close to any protected areas and, furthermore, “contains invasive alien species.” This reality, incidentally, prevails in all the natural spaces of any kind found in southern Quebec but the mere observation, with the words “invasive alien,” carries negative connotations.
The part of the study entitled “Monarch Butterfly” – section 3.8 – includes a series of remarks that consistently displace attention. First, the description uses the word “site” which, in the study’s terms of reference, refers just to the smaller northern area of planned construction and not to the larger, ecological setting where there are several thousand milkweed plants. Hence the observation: “the site has a few common milkweed.” [Emphasis added.]
The analysis makes an understated nod of sorts to the crisis of the Monarch – “Declines of greater than 50% have occurred over the last decade” – while stressing that the problem “facing this species… primarily involves its overwintering in Mexico and California.” Attention is deflected away from Montreal, even though this city has its “Gold Status” precisely because it is part of “the length of the butterfly’s corridor.” Yet, the description continues this idea of “not us” by stressing that the “staging areas” for the Monarch “are located mostly in Ontario” – while conceding that, “there are also staging areas in Quebec, although of lesser importance than Ontario.”
‘Medicom still has not made up its mind about whether to put the plant on the Monarch Butterfly Fields. There are many alternative sites available outside the wetland system and the company seems genuinely surprised by the reaction.’
Such a portrait allows for a general overview: “The site’s geographical location, its history and the low presence of milkweed do not provide any attributes of critical habitat.”
All of that leads to the summary’s climax: “In conclusion, no sensitive species, sensitive habitats or protected areas are present in the work area.”
Local environmentalists have commented that this study and its evaluation approach “is largely outmoded” because of its failure to appreciate the importance of fragmentation of the ecosystem, the beneficial anti-heat-island effect of the existing terrain, the cursory list of animal species, the limited area examined and the failure to mention vital species such as meadow voles (food for many predators, including the endangered short-eared owl).

Short-eared owl – Image: Sumeet Moghe, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Medicom still has not made up its mind about whether to put the plant on the Monarch Butterfly Fields. There are many alternative sites available outside the wetland system and the company seems genuinely surprised by the reaction. During a site visit with Technoparc Oiseaux in the middle of July, Medicom officials were much more interested in environmental feedback than the ADM people, who quite categorically reiterated their determination to develop all the federally-owned land north of the airport, except for a small reserve.
The total wetland, riverine system is, in fact, 200 hectares. That is why Montreal’s Green Coalition, working with ex-environment Minister of Quebec Clifford Lincoln, has formally demanded that the federal cabinet make all of the federally-owned portion (roughly 75%) a National Wildlife Area. Both Technoparc Oiseaux and Green Coalition are sure that the Medicom plant if it proceeds as outlined, will be the first step in a much larger act of environmental destruction. At the end of 2020, federal officials assured Green Coalition, in private talks, that “there will be no development there.” This assurance was false.
Canada, Quebec, and Montreal have all already lost 90% of their urban wetlands. Just this August, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has issued the direst of warnings to the whole world. In this ecological, political and social context, re-naturalized lands assume a far greater importance than they have ever had. They are not marginal – they are central to the human story. The curse of fragmentation has made us lose the 90%, so we must work relentlessly to stop the same thing happening to the 10% left.
‘… the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has issued the direst of warnings to the whole world. In this ecological, political and social context, re-naturalized lands assume a far greater importance than they have ever had.’
The IPCC report makes it very clear that the business-as-usual approach to ecological issues needs to be a thing of the past. Just this summer, we are witnessing wildfires scorching woodland and communities from the Aegean to western North America and unprecedented floods from Europe to India, drowning hundreds. The 1.5 degrees centigrade mark set to slow climate change threatens to be in the rearview mirror by the time the next IPCC report is issued.
Stephen Cornelius, chief adviser on climate change at the World Wildlife Fund is not optimistic: “This is a stark assessment of the frightening future that awaits us if we fail to act. With the world on the brink of irreversible harm, every fraction of a degree of warming matters to limit the dangers.”
The WWF has been campaigning hard to protect the monarch and its habitat. The small patch of Montreal green space known as the Butterfly Lands is a bit of monarch habitat that by geographic accident we Montréalais have the duty to preserve. While some of the threats to our ecosystem are monumental (one thinks of oil sands pipelines) most are incremental – thousands of small development decisions taken for the sake of profit and convenience adding up to loss of green space, destruction of wetlands and loss of habitat. And, of course, attendant temperature rise. So a report making claims that this is not prime natural habitat (indeed deploying the environmentally dubious notion of “wasteland”) is really only another excuse for conducting business as usual.
When the Mayoress of Montreal, Valérie Plante, decided to purchase 140 hectares of wet meadows in the western end of Montreal Island, she did so because her administration recognized how highly valuable land “that has gone fallow” has become. The buying of the meadows created the basis for Montreal’s new Great Western Park.
A similar effort is badly needed north of Montreal’s airport in what is generically known as “the Technoparc lands.” The federal government owns the major share, so it should do the right thing where it counts.
The Monarch Butterfly Fields are an essential part of our patrimony and the protest now surrounding them is a sign that citizens and journalists and activists are alive to the crisis that we face locally and globally.
‘While some of the threats to our ecosystem are monumental (one thinks of oil sands pipelines) most are incremental – thousands of small development decisions taken for the sake of profit and convenience adding up to loss of green space, destruction of wetlands and loss of habitat.’
Protest of this scale is about the Monarch Butterfly Fields but also about our whole situation on Montreal Island. Protest should lead to hope… if decision-makers listen.
Elections are in the air, so our “décideurs,” as the expression goes in French, should keep Québec’s motto in mind: “Je me souviens.”
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of WestmountMag.ca or its publishers.
Feature image: James Wheeler from Pexels
Read other articles about the environment
Patrick Barnard is a Board member of the Green Coalition.
Richard Swift is an author and writer for the New Internationalist magazine of Oxford, in the United Kingdom.
Well argued and well researched. We must make our political leaders aware of the necessity of protecting the precious few natural areas left on Montreal Island.
Agreed, the arguments are well presented and if we aren’t able to sway the ADM, and their supporters, there is little to no hope of addressing the issues of Climate Change.
If the ADM, the Federal Government, Cities of Montreal and Dorval can’t bring themselves to re-think this ill-conceived plan, there is no hope whatsoever in saving biodiversity.
Talk is cheap, time to put words into action.
With a stroke of the pen Justin Trudeau could settle this no mind idea once & for all! What better time than during an election! Canadians have put the environment at the very top of the list of crucial issues! As well, Medicom could do the right thing and opt for a different location – such an easy move would also help repair their tanking reputation!
It is inconceivable that a modern democratic government steadfastly refuses to listen to the scientists…we are fast approaching an environmental tipping point (some argue that we are already there). In a province as large as Quebec, there is surely another site available to fabricate material for masks. We need to heed the ancient First Nations wisdom… Nature does not need Man, Man cannot survive without Nature.
Thank you for this thorough and thoughtful analysis of the issues which define the conflict between the commercial, political and environmental concerns of this situation. May I encourage you to submit this to the Public Consultation Process before August 24. You have an important voice in this.