While the City of Montreal began a broad public consultation on how to encourage more international flights at Montreal-Trudeau Airport, several elected officials and citizens, already exasperated by airborne noise, are worried about the situation escalating.
Aeroports de Montreal (ADM), which on Monday released a study on the state of the airline industry in Montreal, does not conceal its wish to offer direct flights to Asia. “It’s been years that we are working hard to develop links with Beijing,” says Chantal Beaulieu, Vice President, Public Affairs and Communications WMD.
Driven by the same motivation, dozens of Chinese Montrealers were present in Council Chambers of City Hall on Monday, where the first day of the public consultation on the increase in international flights was held. “A Montreal-Beijing direct link can change everything, many Chinese investors want to come here, but they are discouraged by one stop,” said Jimmy Jia, chairman of the Association of Chinese entrepreneurs in Quebec.
The 11 municipal elected representatives listened attentively. “I totally agree with this gentleman, increase flights, but it should not come at the expense of citizens living under the flight corridor,” said Pierre Gagnier, Mayor of the Borough of Ahuntsic-Cartierville.
M. Gagnier said that noise pollution affects many fellow citizens, many of whom feel assaulted by the constant comings and goings of aircraft. The Mayor of Saint-Laurent, Alan DeSousa, also sees this issue, his district being located even closer to landing aircraft, as are adjacent municipalities of Pointe-Claire and Dorval.
“The big problem is that ADM is a private company. Elected representatives complain in vain, it is not they who make decisions on air traffic, ” said Emilie Thuillier, Councillor of Ahuntsic. “In 1992, the federal government transferred the busiest airports in the country to private non-profit institutions, including ADM.” Not mincing her words, Ms Thuillier described ADM as an “opaque society” that escapes the Access to Information Act and, in fact, controls “data shared with the community.” “It’s really hard to separate fact from fiction, including the number of people actually affected by airborne noise,” said the elected representative from Projet Montreal …
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