City reaches deal with Hypertec to preserve part of Technoparc wetlands

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The Valérie Plante administration and the technology firm Hypertec have reached a $30.6-million deal that will result in the conservation of an 11-hectare section of ecologically valuable lands in the Technoparc area, The Gazette has learned.

The deal is in line with Mayor Plante’s 2021 election promise to expand Des Sources Nature Park, creating a 175-hectare conservation area almost as big as Mount Royal Park, in the undeveloped lands in and around the Technoparc industrial park and north of Trudeau International Airport. Plante pledged to rezone and conserve all city-owned, undeveloped holdings in the Technoparc and to work with other levels of government to purchase and/or protect the rest of this valuable wetlands ecosystem.

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Multiple sources close to the deal have told The Gazette the city has managed to cobble together $30.6 million to buy the land from Hypertec, with contributions from the provincial government, the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal and the Nature Conservancy of Canada, a national charitable organization dedicated to protecting natural areas.

The city’s executive committee is expected to vote on the deal on Wednesday, and the administration is expected to hold a news conference Wednesday to release details.

Hypertec purchased the land from a private developer in April 2023 for about $27 million, after searching for an appropriate location for its global headquarters for several years. Despite Hypertec’s stated intention to make its headquarters “the most sustainable building on the planet,” scientists and conservationists immediately denounced the plan, saying it would irreparably fracture one of the last unprotected, ecologically important natural areas on the island of Montreal.

In August 2023, the company said it had found a more appropriate location within the Technoparc, which a private owner was willing to sell. But Hypertec said it could only buy that site if the city would first purchase its land for about what the company had paid. That plan fell through, but the company has been in negotiations with the city for more than a year to find an appropriate location.

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The Gazette has also learned that Hypertec has now found a site for its headquarters in the LaSalle borough. The land was previously developed and will need to be decontaminated before the company can build.

The deal means that about 700 Hypertec jobs will remain on the island of Montreal.

Conspicuously absent from the deal is the federal government, which controls about 70 per cent of the land that conservation groups say must be preserved. Transport Canada has leased 158 undeveloped hectares north of the airport to Aéroports de Montréal (ADM). In 2019, ADM committed to preserving 19 of those hectares, but conservationists say that is not nearly enough to protect various at-risk species and keep the wetlands healthy.

The ADM lands are known to be an important migratory stop for monarch butterflies, which the federal government listed as endangered under the Species at Risk Act in December 2023. This means the government must implement an effective conservation plan, and that it is illegal to kill monarch butterflies and to destroy essential habitat.

This should at least prevent a repeat of what happened in the summer of 2022, when ADM mowed down 4,000 milkweed plants, which are essential to the survival of the monarch. But groups including the Green Coalition and TechnoparcOiseaux have been pushing for years now for a formal conservation plan for the Technoparc wetlands.

The wetlands are made up of forests, marshes and grasslands, and are considered a vital stopover habitat for migratory birds. Birders spot close to 200 species there each year, several of which are rare or endangered.

The Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal and the federal government have made international commitments to protect 30 per cent of their territory by 2030. Only 23.6 per cent of Greater Montreal remains in a natural state.

mlalonde@postmedia.com

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