In a move he called "correcting a historical injustice," Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced on Monday the return of 4,450 hectares of farmland expropriated a generation ago to build Mirabel airport.

About 125 farmers, who rent their land from Ottawa, will be allowed to buy it back, more than 37 years after they were forced to sell to the federal government to make room for the ill-fated Mirabel International Airport, north of Montreal.

Passenger planes stopped landing at Mirabel airport in 2004.
(Radio-Canada)

"In allowing the farmers of Mirabel to reacquire their land, we are correcting a mistake of history, we are looking towards the future," Harper said at the announcement in Mirabel, where he was accompanied by his Quebec lieutenant, Lawrence Cannon.

Harper told a crowd of about 100 people that the expropriation, spearheaded by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1969, was a "horrible act for the population of Saint-Scholastique [one of three towns that make up Mirabel]."

The PM didn't mince words about Trudeau's Liberal government: "They had big ideas for big projects that cost a lot of money, created a lot of income tax and debt. But that didn't matter, Ottawa took what it wanted.

"The reality is, we can never change history. Even Mr. Trudeau said that. But we can do what we can, in our own capacity, to resolve problems in the best way possible."

Harper said he was pleased to finish the work started by the last Conservative prime minister, Brian Mulroney, who unlocked a major parcel of expropriated land during his first term in office in 1985.

In making the announcement, Harper made good on a year-old electoral promise to Quebec voters to resolve the Mirabel land situation once and for all.

Mirabel residents were ecstatic.

Marcel Denis, president of a farmers' committee, thanked the Conservative government for fulfilling its electoral promise.

"It is the only government that has delivered the goods," Denis said Monday.

Farming families can now plan to buy back their farms, fulfilling a wish many in Mirabel have harboured for decades.

"I'm so happy. It's a great day for us. It's a dream for us to have back our land, you know," said Monique Desormeaux, who watched Ottawa seize her family farm in 1969.

However, not everyone shared Desormeaux's joy.

Mirabel Mayor Hubert Meilleur called the government's decision "absurd." Mirabel needs the land for a new industrial park he's helped bring to life, and this could complicate that project, Meilleur said.

Mirabel has already staked a claim for a parcel of land to build the park.

Land in high demand

Ottawa will retain about 2,400 hectares, while several other parties are hoping to benefit from the land return.

Montreal's airport authority has expressed an interest in some of the land, with an eye to eventually reinstating flights between Mirabel and Montreal's Trudeau International Airport.

Mirabel stopped receiving passengers in 2004.

The Mohawk nation of Kanesatake has marked the expropriated land as its own, and vowed earlier this year to fight the federal government's decision to return the land to farmers.

Harper said his government has a "legal obligation" to consult with the Mohawks, and will abide by the process to resolve any "legitimate claims," but plans to honour its promise to electors.

"The government made a pretty clear promise to the people whose land was expropriated, and that's what we'll move on," he said.

Representatives from Kanesatake have already filed papers in Ottawa outlining their claim to the farmland.

The "expropriés," as the Mirabel farmers are called, will be allowed to buy back the land at market price with deductions for any investment they made to improve the land.

Seeking Quebec support

Harper is in Quebec to bolster support for the Conservative party leading into the next election, even though the prime minister denied he was in campaign mode.

"I don't detect any desire on the part of the public to have a second election in a year," he said. "That would make three elections in three years. I don't find anyone asking for that."

The Tories clinched 10 Quebec seats in the January 2006 vote, marking the party's re-emergence in la belle province.

However, Harper's popularity in the province has waned in the last year due, in part to his government's position on Afghanistan and the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.

Nevertheless, Harper insisted, the Tories offer a palatable alternative to Quebecers, notably on the provincial-federal relations front.

"We think we're getting things done, we're fulfilling the promises we made, and we'd like to continue to do that," he said.

"When it comes to fiscal imbalance, and any other number of issues, Quebecers will find they have the same three choices next [election], as the last time. There's one party that doesn't admit there's a fiscal imbalance, there's another party that can't do anything about it, and there's one party that's tackling it."

Harper said he'd like to see his minority government last until 2009.