Lincoln: ADM conduct in airport expansion flies in the face of good corporate citizenship
The Gazette's front-page headline of July 24 — '' Airport consultation flies under radar '' — came as no surprise to me. Aéroports de Montréal appears to have developed an ingrained habit of flying low, far too low, regarding consultation on its projects and their impacts.
In 2021, ADM decided to extend its wings into commercial development. It undertook to sublease federal land under its airport-management lease to a Montreal corporate group, Medicom/Meltech, for a substantial mask manufacturing plant of 15,500 square metres. The facility would have covered the large expanse of milkweed plants known as the Monarch Fields, an essential habitat for the endangered monarch butterfly, protected federally under the Species at Risk Act.
The reaction of broad swaths of civil society was swift, incredulous and sharply negative. Substantive briefs were submitted during the short consultation period, and public protests ensued. Recognizing the legitimacy of the public outcry, Medicom/Meltech proved a responsible corporate citizen with its praiseworthy decision to locate its plant elsewhere.
For ADM, however, this public lesson in responsible corporate citizenship seemed to fall on deaf ears. Whether in a fit of pique to show those pesky protesters who was the boss, or for whatever reason, ADM chose summertime in 2022 to suddenly raze to the ground an estimated 4,000 milkweed plants of the Monarch Fields covering 19 hectares.
The highly descriptive words of Marwah Rizqy, MNA for St-Laurent, vividly capture the complete exasperation of civil society: 'Pendant que les Québécois fêtaient la Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Aéroports de Montréal passait la tondeuse.' Indeed. While Quebecers were celebrating la Fête nationale, ADM was mowing the field.
This spring, ADM was at it again. It announced it is taking over the land it leases to the City of Dorval for its golf course to build a fuel depot and decarbonization plant. Not only did Dorval Mayor Marc Doret point out that more suitable alternative areas existed, but he also joined representatives from Montreal, St-Laurent and civil society to underscore the irony of obliterating mature trees and flora — the surest natural sequesters of carbon — to replace them with a facility surrounded by paved access roads and parking areas to ... decarbonize.
Hopefully, this is another plant that will not see the light of day on federal land.
The article of July 24 refers to a $10-billion expansion project. I repeat, $10 billion. Yet the consultation period for each of the two separate components of the project is a mere 30 days!
Is this a joke, and does ADM believe this is responsible behaviour for a not-for-profit corporation entrusted to provide a major essential service to millions?
In the article, Pierre Lachapelle, president of Les Pollués de Montréal-Trudeau, referred to realistic consultation periods offered by organizations such as the Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement (BAPE), which holds independent environmental impact assessments on provincial projects.
Consultations for the $6.3-billion REM project lasted two years. They were widespread and contentious, as the huge investment and its impacts clearly demanded. Here, ADM is giving interested citizens 30 days for written submissions on a massive project. May I suggest the qualifiers 'outrageous' and 'arrogant' are not out of line?
It brought to mind another airport project where, obviously, due diligence and meaningful consultations must have lacked the thoroughness its importance demanded. Had the billions now being spent on the back of finessed ''consultations'' been directed instead to fast-rail access and the projected extension of Highway 13, maybe the white elephant that Mirabel became could — should — have been Montreal's airport of the long-term future.
For several years, an extensive consensus of civil society has endured regarding the crucial importance of protecting the federal lands around the airport. Prime Minister Mark Carney has stated that this unique natural site is one being considered as a national urban park. It is high time ADM should become a conscientious corporate citizen and, along with the federal government, start earning our trust for this worthy cause.
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