Many wish to see green space at Trudeau Airport protected as a way of protecting the Monarch Butterfly in the area. It has been suggested that because the airport belongs to Transport Canada the federal government has the power to stop development anywhere on the property. 

However, Aéroports de Montréal (ADM) holds a long-term lease with Transport Canada, giving it the right to develop the airport’s lands to generate revenue to finance airport operations. The government cannot therefore legally intervene in ADM’s development decisions. That said, federal environmental law — namely, the Impact Assessment Act (IAA) and the Species at Risk Act (SARA) — can be used to ensure that development projects at the airport, and indeed on federal lands anywhere, take proper account of ecosystem impacts.

Specifically, the IAA requires third-party organizations like ADM that operate on federal Crown lands to conduct an environmental impact review before proceeding with a project. Pursuant to this review, should the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change judge that the project ecosystem impacts could be serious, he may designate the project for a broader, more comprehensive impact assessment complete with public participation. Environmental impact reviews and assessments are key levers by which the federal government can control development on federal Crown lands like airports, even when those lands are under third-party lease.

What’s more, SARA allows the federal government to take immediate direct action — apply a protection order — to protect a species listed as endangered when its habitat, located on federal lands, has been designated critical for the species’ survival. 

The regulatory steps for designating a species as endangered requires the government to first undertake public consultations. With regards to the Monarch Butterfly, these consultation have taken place, and in January of this year the government officially accorded the Monarch endangered status. The government now has one year to finalize a recovery strategy for the species along with identifying its critical habitat. A designation of the airport lands as Monarch critical habitat would give environment minister Steven Guilbeault the power to prohibit development in that habitat.