Brigitte Watson has been visiting the greenspace along Fairview Avenue in Pointe-Claire, almost every weekend, for almost two years. He is one of many Pointe-Claire residents who have dedicated their time to protecting the area known as Fairview Forest.
Read more: Fairview One one step closer to safety from future development
But he and others have noticed some difference at the edge of the green space on Fairview Avenue.
“We came and we investigated and we found that the trees had been cut down, the brush cleared, and we didn’t know why,” Watson said.
The green space is owned by Cadillac Fairview, which announced its billion-dollar plan in 2020 to convert the green space and its adjacent parking lot into a downtown for West Island.
Read more: New real estate project planned for Pointe-Claire
Back in May, Pointe-Claire’s city council adopted an interim control by-law that temporarily halted development in certain areas of the city, including green space.
In June, the Montreal Metropolitan Community Council also adopted a bylaw to protect more green space and wetlands in the greater Montreal area. That bylaw covered the forest.
The problem, Watson says, is that both of those bylaws have exclusions, which she says allow Cadillac Fairview to work around the rules.
Read more: The new bylaw will protect more greenspace in the Montreal metropolitan area
He and Pointe-Claire Mayor Tim Thomas have reason to believe the changes were made to allow the company to build a fence around the forest in an effort to block access to the space.
“They are cutting down a whole bunch of small trees to block the forest and make a fence to tell everyone. It’s a muscle flex, it’s as simple as that,” Thomas said.
In an email to Global News, Cadillac Fairview said it is in compliance with all applicable regulations. When pressed about what this meant or elaborate, a spokesperson declined.
Watson says that even if the fence goes up, it doesn’t stop there. He and the others will continue to fight for the existence of space.
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.