Réseau express métropolitain (REM): Saint-Laurent Asks CDPQ Infra to Keep its Promise to Compensate for Trees Cut Down
Saint-Laurent, August 9, 2023 – At its August 8 general meeting, Saint-Laurent Council adopted a resolution calling on the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec Infra (CDPQ Infra) to keep its promise to replace trees cut down on Saint-Laurent territory. The resolution also calls for compensation equivalent to the number of trees actually cut down as well as the canopy area.
Quote
“In a context of climate crisis, it’s all the more important to conserve and enhance our natural environments, which have benefits beyond compare, both for our community and for the world as a whole. It is unthinkable that the CDPQ Infra should fail to keep its promise on Saint-Laurent territory in this regard and not contribute toward making the huge REM project an initiative that cares about the environment and the populations it intends to serve. We will be very vigilant to ensure that our objectives of sustainable development and protection of biodiversity are taken into account on our territory.”
Alan DeSousa, Mayor of Saint-Laurent
Details
CDPQ Infra is proposing to plant only 960 trees—corresponding to a surface area of 10,000 square metres—as compensation for the 14,000 trees (54,000 square metres) for which it is actually responsible, according to Saint-Laurent’s Administration.
This Administration notes that the REM project, with its five stations in Saint-Laurent, has resulted in even more trees being cut down than expected on Saint-Laurent territory: Over 30,000 public and private trees have been cut down in Saint-Laurent—an amount that is equivalent to nearly 70,000 square metres of natural wooded areas and rows of trees.
Despite a constant tree-planting effort on the part of Saint-Laurent’s Administration over the past fifteen years or so, the construction of the REM is leading not only to a loss of canopy, but also to the fragmentation and destruction of natural environments and wildlife habitats on Saint-Laurent territory. Yet it takes a number of years before the natural environments created by the newly planted trees can provide ecosystem services similar to those offered by the environments that were destroyed.
This is why Saint-Laurent, a sustainable municipal territory, adopted an initial resolution (CA18 08 0552) in October 2018—as soon as the REM construction site got under way—in favour of compensation for the loss of natural environments and ecological connectivity as well as the replacement of trees that had been cut down. In particular, it called on CDPQ Infra to provide—on public and private land—for compensation in proportion to the state and timing of the tree removals.
These requests are in line with the 2021-2030 Climate Emergency Plan adopted by Saint-Laurent, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% between now and 2030, to protect biodiversity and to prepare for climate change. These requests also follow regional and local conservation objectives that have been revised upwards, such as the commitment made by the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal at the 15th Conference of the parties held in Montréal in 2022 to protect 30% of natural environments in Greater Montréal by 2023, or that of Ville de Montréal’s Climate Plan, is aiming for targets carbon neutrality by 2050.
Related links
Saint-Laurent 2021-2030 Climate Emergency Plan
Saint-Laurent Steps Up its Greening and Tree Protection Requirements (press release of June 13, 2023)
Saint-Laurent Has Planted More Than 10,000 Large Trees Since 2008! (press release of June 22, 2021)
