West Island green space sale raises concern

A call for tenders for green space on Montreal's West Island has caught both environmental activists and government officials by surprise.

Quebec's industrial development corporation, the Socit gnrale de financement, which owns the land, has published ads in local papers seeking bids for the 98 hectares of land. The ads announce opportunities for residential and industrial construction.

The wooded area extends from Cap-Saint-Jacques nature park in Pierrefonds alongside the l'Anse-a-l'Orme Park to Angell Woods in Beaconsfield.

David Fletcher of the Green Coalition said he's worried the land - home to beavers, a herd of deer and rare species of plants and trees - will be spoiled.

"We already have enough development," said Fletcher. "We already have enough strip malls. We don't have enough areas conserved."

Local environmental groups and officials at the city of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue said they had been told at one time the land would be turned into a conservation area.

"When we saw the ad in the paper, we thought, obviously we've been lied to perhaps," said Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue Coun. Ryan Young.

The city had been planning to change zoning bylaws on its portion of the land this fall, said Young.

But some worry it could be too late.

A spokesperson for Quebec Environment Minister Line Beauchamp confirmed the ministry had hoped to turn the land into a conservation area.

He said she is not happy about the decision to sell it.

"I think that speaks volumes," said Young. "I've been speaking to activists inside Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue and there's a move afoot to demonstrate public support [to save the land].