Transport committee  It is hard to say. We are still unable to accurately pinpoint it on maps, but we know it is gigantic. At the time, 97,000 acres of land were expropriated, or roughly 70,000 football fields. That is the total area covered by the servitude.

Transport committee  This servitude infringes on one of our jurisdictions, namely land-use planning. As part of the Montreal Metropolitan Community, we have to meet a minimal density threshold. The existence of the servitude prevents us from developing certain lots, which in turn keeps us from meeti

Transport committee  Absolutely. The pandemic showed that vacant buildable lots are getting rarer and rarer. We still have many lots that are connected to the utilities that could be built on. We want to curtail urban sprawl and limit development to the zone where it is authorized. However, the serv

Transport committee  It is difficult to say whether our situation is unique in Canada. One thing is certain: we are really affected by the easement on our territory. I insist on the fact that we are witnessing the devitalization of our sectors, because we are not able to develop in the white areas.

Transport committee  It is indeed nonsense. As you are saying, they are white areas on which it is possible to build and develop. We are part of the Montreal metropolitan area, which requires us to provide an adequate supply of housing in accordance with the thresholds being set for us. It makes no

Transport committee  Since we have a freight-only airport, there has been a very large drop in traffic. The noise pollution and other problems that might have arisen under the old vision of the airport no longer exist. Passenger flights have been moved somewhere else. For us, the easement has become

Transport committee  This is absolutely the case, just as the terminal building, which has also become completely useless. It was built through a land lease granted to Aéroports de Montréal. It has been demolished in particular to reduce its maintenance costs and stop paying municipal taxes. Some of

Transport committee  I completely agree. This project is a concrete example of the problem of easements and the unacceptable situations that can arise from them. The fact that the closure of the airport did not result in a complete review of the need for the zoning and easement makes no sense. The

Transport committee  I thank the committee for having me. I'd like to tell you the story of our town. Since 1969, the year the then federal Liberal government decided to build an international airport in Mirabel, our town suffered many mishaps that have had direct and, at times, irreversible impacts