Contaminated land: Committee calls on the Port of Montreal to comply with municipal regulations

A transport truck enters the Contrecoeur Marine Terminal in Contrecoeur, Que., on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov

The Montreal Port Authority (MPA) has not confirmed whether it will comply with a motion unanimously adopted by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport, which calls on it to comply with all municipal regulations and Quebec environmental laws.

The City of Contrecœur’s inventory of contaminated sites indicates that the groundwater and soil of certain plots owned by the Port of Montreal are contaminated with petroleum products and various metals—cadmium, copper, nickel, lead and zinc—due to the area’s industrial history.

The Vigie Citoyenne Port de Contrecœur group fears that these substances could contaminate the river and the drinking water supply due to runoff during the port expansion works.

The MPA is planning major works to expand its terminal in Contrecœur to increase the Port of Montreal’s annual capacity by 60 per cent and states that these works will be carried out in accordance with a rigorous regulatory framework, in compliance with federal authorizations.

However, according to section 33 of Contrecœur’s By-law on Permits and Certificates, before carrying out work on contaminated land, a developer must apply for permits from the City.

READ MORE: Montreal Port expansion would be ‘unprofitable,’ says study

“We are calling for this process to be followed. Once these sites have been identified as contaminated, the MPA must draw up a remediation plan, approved by the Quebec Minister for the Environment,” argued Hélène Reeves, spokesperson for Vigie Citoyenne Port de Contrecœur.

Bloc Québécois secures the adoption of a motion

As the MPA has, to date, not applied for any permits from the municipality and in light of the citizens’ group’s concerns, Bloc Québécois MP Xavier Barsalou-Duval secured the adoption by the Standing Committee on Transport of a motion calling on the port authority to make public and submit to the committee, within 30 days, its remediation plan for the contaminated sites linked to the port’s expansion.

The motion, adopted unanimously by committee members—including MPs from the Bloc Québécois, the Liberal Party of Canada and the Conservative Party of Canada—on March 11, “calls on the port to comply with municipal by-laws” and Quebec’s environmental laws.

In response, on March 13, the MPA issued a press release stating that it “complies with all applicable laws and regulations” regarding the Port of Montreal’s expansion project in Contrecœur.

“We understand, reading between the lines, that this means it will not be applying for a permit” from the City of Contrecœur, said Barsalou-Duval.

In a conversation with The Canadian Press, the communications director of the Montreal Port Authority, Renée Larouche, explained that the Port, “a federal agent,” would “first respond to the Standing Committee on Transport” and would then communicate its response publicly.

“We need time to assess everything this entails,” and the MPA has until April 11 to respond to the motion, Larouche was keen to point out.

When asked, “do you intend to comply with municipal regulations?,” the communications director replied that “the port authority adheres to a rigorous regulatory framework in line with federal requirements.”

A project led by a Dubai-based company

For Reeves, the “Port’s failure to comply with municipal regulations is worrying,” particularly as the MPA has entrusted a foreign company with the design of the land-based works for the expansion of the Port of Contrecœur.

DP World Canada, a subsidiary of the Dubai-based multinational DP World, will oversee the construction of the terminal in Contrecœur, including the container yard, buildings, utilities and rail link, as well as managing its operation and maintenance for the next 40 years.

“We must ensure compliance with municipal regulations and Quebec’s environmental legislation immediately, because otherwise we will completely lose control,” fears the Contrecœur resident.

The MPA wishes to use the Contrecœur site to increase its container handling capacity. It estimates that up to 1.5 million containers per year could pass through this future terminal, and the site could receive up to 1,200 lorries per day.

On its website, the MPA has published information on the progress of the works and the project schedule.

Two berths, a container-handling area, an intermodal rail yard, a truck reception gate and support facilities are among the facilities to be built.

The port expansion is included in the list of infrastructure projects that Premier Mark Carney wishes to see approved and implemented on an accelerated basis.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on March 23, 2026.