2024 – Bird Protection | New building standards in Saint-Laurent

Glazing for new buildings must now meet bird-friendly standards in Montreal’s Saint-Laurent borough. Clear glass is also now banned for exterior railings.

The new regulation, adopted on 25 June, targets certain types of buildings where more than 50% of the external walls are made up of windows or glass. The glazing of these buildings – including greenhouses and crash barriers located less than 16 m from the ground – must now be subject to an anti-collision treatment.

Additional building and installation standards are also planned for new constructions near natural environments. A public awareness campaign will also be launched in 2025.

These measures are part of the biodiversity protection policy of Saint-Laurent, the first municipality to obtain the “Bee Friendly City” certificate in 2019, according to the municipality’s mayor, Alan DeSousa.

According to studies reported in The press As of March last year, nearly 42 million birds were dying each year in Canada after colliding with a building.¹Glass surfaces are believed to be the main cause of these fatal collisions.

The municipality of Saint-Laurent is made up of 70% industrial parks and also has a fair number of parks and large natural areas, Mayor Alan DeSousa points out. “These environments serve as a habitat for more than 200 species of migratory and native birds,” he adds.

In addition, the intensive planting of trees over the past 15 years to combat heat islands in the neighborhood has attracted new wildlife that the neighborhood wants to protect, says Kenza Diboune, a planning consultant in Saint-Laurent.

According to the gentleman, it took about two years of consultation to establish these “affordable and easily applicable” standards.^me Diboune.

“We hope to inspire other municipalities to follow this example, but also to improve these bird protection measures,” concludes Alan DeSousa.

1. Read our article “Thousands of birds to save”