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Mont Orford

The battle of Mont-Orford Park (Québec)

MOUNT ORFORD PARK

In the spring of 2007, CPAWS-Quebec and its partners in the SOSParcOrford Coalition registered a major success when the Quebec government abandonned its plan to sell off a large part of the mountain at the heart of Mount Orford Park.
However, having lost its protected status in preparation for the sale, the land in question remains vulnerable to a variety of development proposals. CPAWS-Quebec is therefore continuing its work to ensure that this heritage site is fully restored to the park.

THE PLACE

At the heart of Quebec’s Mt. Orford Provincial Park, Mount Orford towers over a landscape of lakes and rolling hills. Its summit features alpine species unprotected on any other mountaintop in Quebec’s mixed-forest biome, and at its foot lie exceptional remnants of mature deciduous forest. The park is one of the oldest in the province, having been established during the Depression when twenty-seven local municipalities pooled their resources to buy the mountain and donate it to the Québec government to ensure its protection forever as a park. Mt-Orford was the first, and remains the only, park in Quebec established through such a community-based fund-raising effort.

THE THREAT

During the 40s, ski runs and a golf course were built in the park. A number of years later, this sector of the park was leased to private interests who took on the management and development of the recreational facilities. In March 2006, in order to meet the ski area’s demands to improve profitability through the development and sale of residential units, the Québec government announced it would sell the totality of the leased park land - over 6 km2, or 11% of the park. A large portion of the mountain itself was to be included in the sell-off.

THE ISSUE

Québec’s Parks Act assures the permanent protection of its parks, and specifically prohibits the sale of park land. The government therefore had to override the Parks Act by adopting special legislation allowing the excision and sale of part of Mont-Orford Park. The procedure was denounced by CPAWS-Quebec and its partners, because

1) it could have created a dangerous precedent compromising the integrity of all 23 parks in the Québec network. If the legislation could be circumvented in this case, other parks could risk being carved up as well to accommodate private developers
2) it could have undermined the credibility of other government programs designed to encourage citizens to make monetary or land donations for the purpose of conserving natural areas.

THE REACTION

CPAWS-Quebec and several local and provincial organizations rapidly created SOSParcOrford. Among our initiatives to fight the sell-off were the organization of a 3000-person rally at Orford, a 10,000 person march through Montreal, an 80,000-name petition submitted to the provincial assembly, a lawsuit, and a complaint to NAFTA’s Commission for Environmental Cooperation. The campaign failed to prevent the removal of the land from the park, but the controversy it generated was cited in the media as one of the five main reasons leading to the government’s losing its majority status in the March 2007 election.

THE CHALLENGE

Returned to power in a minority position and facing a non-confidence motion on the issue, the government cancelled the bidding process that was by then underway, and went as far as to pass new legislation in June 2007 prohibiting any future attempt to sell it. However, the government has yet to return the land to the park. Instead, it established a local committee with a two-year mandate to develop recommendations as to how the land should be used. Options still include leasing it on a long-term basis (rather than selling it) to real-estate developers. CPAWS-Quebec and our partners therefore continue working to have the excised land restored in its entirety to the park. To this end, we have obtained a seat on the local committee, held a press conference calling for its secretive discussions be opened up, and commissioned a poll demonstrating the public’s continued support for reintegrating the land into the park.

HAVE YOUR SAY

The future of Quebec's parks is a matter not just for regional committees, but for all Quebeckers.