Federal MP Isabelle Morin came away with a clearer idea what impact aircraft noise is having on West Island residents living near Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport after a public consultation held last week.
Close to 100 area residents turned up at the Pine Beach Citizens’ Association offices on Herron St. in Dorval for the public consultation Sept. 12 organized by the NDP MP for NotreDamedeGrâce-Lachine.
At the meeting, dozens of residents spoke emotionally about being woken up by planes flying overhead at all hours, illnesses (hypertension, heart conditions and stress) they suspect are related to sleep disturbance, and of be-ing unable to open their windows.
Four years ago, Montreal’s public health department launched a public health study on the impact of airport noise. That study has yet to be released, said Jean-Marc Hétu, a former mayor of Lachine and a member of CQV, Citoyens pour une qualité de vie, an antiDorval airport lobby group.
“We’re still waiting for it,” said a frustrated Hétu.
He asked Morin to work toward a reinstatement of the night curfew at PET – no flights from 11 p.m. until 7 a.m., a solution she said she would find out more about.
“People are frustrated because they feel they are not being listened to,” said Paul Wilkinson, a Dorval resident contacted by The Gazette after the meeting.
A member of the Green Coalition’s board of directors, Wilkinson said, he asked Morin to push for a federal program that would allow residents to insulate their homes and protect themselves from the harmful effects of the noise.
During the public consultation, Wilkinson said, the discussion had to be halted four times for 10to 15-second stretches because jets passing overhead made it impossible for people in the community centre to hear one another speak.
No one spoke at the meeting from Aéroports de Montréal, the airport authority that governs the airport in Dorval and Mirabel, or on behalf of any of the West Island municipalities in the airport’s soundscape.
Still, Morin said, she took the level of participation as a sign of how important the issue is to the community. She said she would work for viable solutions that would address public health concerns.
“Studies have proven that noise pollution has a significant impact on health,” the new MP said in a statement released the following day. “The lack of sleep that can result from noise pollution can cause a lack of concentration, a need for sleeping pills, irritability and even heart disease.”
However, Morin noted, the economic importance of the airport is also a factor that cannot be overlooked. She told residents she would hold a followup meeting, likely in the new year.
You bought a house next to an airport what did you expect? Today’s modern jet engines are getting quieter and quieter. Too bad we can’t send these people back 30-40 years ago when you had actual noisy aircraft such as DC-8s, DC-9s, Super Connies, 727s, VC10s and all of the rest. Any airport curfew is laughable, how can the economy grow when a draconian 11pm-7am curfew is imposed.
You could always move out if you want quite, property in that area of town is selling for a premium.
@Greg: The problem is that these days, you don’t even to buy a house “near” the airport to be bothered. Maybe planes were noisier before, but now with the increasingly number of flights going everywhere over the west island and other parts of the Montreal island, it just makes it insanely worst year after year. Economy is important but is not the only thing that matters, as opposed to what you may think…
We bought in 1981 when Mirabel was to be the International (and future) airport and when there was a curfew at Dorval from 11 pm to 7 am. We pay top $ taxes yet are disturbed by noisy aircraft after 1am and again before 6am as we keep our windows open (no airconditioning as not needed when we built). Selling is not an option as our children grew up in this house which we don’t want to leave but for which we are paying a price with the deterioration of our health. Getting less than 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep is a hazzard that PE Trudeau airport is causing! Reinstating the curfew will cause minor inconvenience to AirCanada & business travellers leaving early/arriving late, but will restore the quality of life that Dorval residents have been paying for, yet not receiving.
@Greg – Carl is absolutely right. When you have over 700 airline movements over the city (that is only commercial airlines, not what ADM calls general aviation, of which there are plenty more, making the numbers probably closer to 1000 per day altogether), it means hell for many even in the daytime, but at night it is disastrous because the background noise is highly reduced and the planes are heard probably at the equivalent of 3-4 times more than the daytime “perception” of noise. If the wind turns to boot, the same area gets the brunt of it with both arrivals and departures. You may know nothing about the effect of winds on aircraft departures or arrivals, but I believe you do. People have to live somewhere, according to what they can afford, whether house or apartment.
Remember that we had a perfectly wonderful airport and that pilots were much happier landing and taking off from Mirabel than from Dorval because the buffer zone was not populated with thousands and thousands of people. Curfews exist, draconian ones too, in certain European cities: why not in Montreal?
I know, lets also talk to the cites and not allow police and fire trucks use their sirens after 11:00 pm too even if your place is roasting
Again that manipulation …Move!!!!Don’t built your house near an aeroport..too easy and wellknown argument …
.Are you paid by ADM??????
My house (that I bought in 2001) in ville St Laurent was built in 1951 and restored by me . I came in 2000 in Quebec throug a quite modern and very important aeroport named «Mirabel » .No one said to me (big TABOU-taxe «Bienvenu» ) that aeroport wiil be removed in the west island of Montreal in 2004 ,just because of air Canada who did’nt want his technics services to remove in Mirabel …. . Undreground railway station was finished and the aeroport could be easily be relied to downtown ,,, No where in the world an aeroport is coming back in the center .It’s just a financial and politic reason .At the beginning of XX1 e century no bigs jobs …so , the same consortiums :SNC-LAVALIN,DESSAU,CIMA+ ,AXOR needed to be helped .With results : all scandals nowwadays we know …and politic benefic for Toronto because Trudeau-PET is less important …
Mrs Morin just continue Mrs Jeninings (PL) and Mourani(B.Q) efforts to obtain a federal commision about Trudeau PET’s aeroport and genrally noises af all aeroports in Canada ….juste before federal elections with results we know…
The question is : how much citizens’ money was given and will give actually(4,5 billions???) for that awful and unpractlcal aeroport..Just thinking which part of island wiil use that aerotrain that James Cherry wants absolutly built with 600millions from federal and provincial .I travelled two months in Europe ,,,I can say that ,unhappily ,this aeroport is far from the most modern aeroports and their falicities (train ,metro …)One scandal more …As Carl said ,it’s time to think not only economics interests who definitly go to crisis and scandals but way of life and environnement protection…Noisy city must finish and we must think again what kind of city we want for future …Open your mind and your eyes or just travel in comparative countries in the wolrd…