Conservationists hail Hypertec deal as exemplary corporate behaviour

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Conservation groups that have been fighting for years to protect the Technoparc wetlands from development rejoiced Wednesday after Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante announced a deal to buy 11 hectares of marshlands, forest and meadow from the tech company Hypertec and protect it as part of the planned Des Sources Nature Park.

Katherine Collin, a spokesperson for TechnoparcOiseaux, said her group is “absolutely delighted” with the announcement, and said it should be seen as a textbook example of how companies that want to be seen as green can put their money where their mouth is.

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“This time, we are not talking about greenwashing,” Collin said. “This is a company that really worked hard to come to a result that will preserve this space without compromise. For us, we could not allow development to happen on this site, to further fragment it. This company listened. We always felt that with Hypertec — and with the city as well — that in our discussions over the last 18 months, there was a real authenticity, a real commitment to protecting the green space. I really feel moved by this announcement today because it shows what is possible and it serves as an example to other businesses.”

Hypertec had originally intended to build its global headquarters in the Technoparc when it purchased the land, zoned for industrial development, for $30.6 million from a private developer in April 2023. Despite the company’s plan to make its headquarters eco-friendly, conservation groups like TechnoparcOiseaux and the Green Coalition begged the city to buy and protect the land, saying any development there would fatally fragment the already delicate ecosystem.

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At a news conference in the Technoparc on Wednesday, Plante announced the city will buy the land — equivalent in size to about 14 soccer fields — from Hypertec for $30.6 million, and extend the limits of the Des Sources Nature Park to include it.

Now, instead of building in a natural space, Hypertec will build its headquarters on industrial land that is being decontaminated in the borough of LaSalle. The company will pay the city $12.6 million for that 3.7-hectare plot of land near the intersection of Angrignon Blvd. and St-Patrick St. in LaSalle.

“The success of this partnership demonstrates the capacity of our administration to pair economic development with environmental protection,” Plante said, adding the deal is “win-win,” since it keeps hundreds of jobs in the city while protecting a sector that is rich in biodiversity.

The deal was completed with a $4.4-million contribution from the Quebec environment department and the Montreal Metropolitan Community through the Trame Verte et Bleue program. That is an MMC program, funded by the province, to create a recreo-tourism network that highlights natural spaces in the region. The Nature Conservancy of Canada, a conservation organization, also committed $2 million through its program dedicated to conserving natural spaces in southern Quebec, also financed by the government of Quebec.

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The city of Montreal’s contribution will be $11.6 million.

Plante stressed that it is expensive to protect natural spaces in urban environments, and that cities need help from other levels of government to do it. “The federal and provincial levels should support cities, who don’t have as much financial capacity, to buy and sustain those goals to save green spaces,” she said.

Hypertec’s director of innovation and sustainable development, Eliot Ahdoot, thanked “all the people and organizations who played an essential role in the preservation of this exceptional site and helped us to find a new site to build our new Hypertec centre.” He mentioned LaSalle borough mayor Nancy Blanchet, Quebec environment minister Benoit Charette, MMC director general Massimo Lezzoni, the Nature Conservancy of Canada and Katherine Collin of TechnoparcOiseaux.

He also singled out the city’s executive committee president Luc Rabouin for brokering the deal, citing his talent at “getting all the parties around the table and putting in place the means necessary to realize our ambitious and remarkable project.”

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The company, founded in Montreal in 1984, employs 700 people globally, about 500 in Montreal. The new centre is expected to create about 200 more jobs in Montreal. The company specializes in cooling systems to manage heat generated by electronic components.

“Today Hypertec is saving natural habitats, converting a grey industrial zone into a green industrial zone, creating quality jobs, and exploring around the world sustainable solutions to redefine international standards,” Ahdoot said. He added the company lost “several million” dollars by postponing its plan to build a new headquarters for 18 months while it searched for a new location, but is pleased with the outcome.

Sylvia Oljemark of The Green Coalition said Hypertec’s decision to sell its land rather than develop it is a major step forward in the conservationists’ goal of preserving 215 hectares of green space that includes lands north of the airport owned by the federal government and the undeveloped lands in the Technoparc industrial park, in the St-Laurent borough.

About 20 hectares of undeveloped lands in the Technoparc are still owned by two private companies; FPInnovations, a not-for-profit research and development firm, and Morguard, a Toronto-based real estate company.

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The Hypertec land “has been a stumbling block for moving forward on this whole 215-hectare ecological space,” Oljemark said. “It is absolutely imperative that we save it. This is a model, an example for the other landowners, to see how they can work to protect this area that is so rich” in biodiversity.

Clifford Lincoln, a former federal member of Parliament and former Quebec environment minister, has been working with conservation groups to save the Technoparc lands. He said Wednesday’s announcement is good news, but expressed outrage that the federal government has yet to commit significant funds to conserving this last substantial swath of unspoiled green space on the island of Montreal.

The federal government owns 175 hectares of undeveloped lands north of the Trudeau International Airport, which Transport Canada has leased to Aéroports de Montréal (ADM). ADM has committed to preserving only 19 hectares of that land.

Lincoln noted the federal government, as a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity, has committed to preserving 30 per cent of its lands and oceans by 2030.

“We need to get the federal government on board … that’s the key,” Lincoln said. “They are the people with the big funds and they are responsible for the Biodiversity Convention. They have 175 hectares that need to be protected. Especially with an election coming, I think now is good time to bring it up and force their hand.”

mlalonde@postmedia.com

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