MONTREAL– Following the discovery of a massive ice-age cavern beneath the city of Montreal, the city’s planners immediately saw the huge underground cave as a green energy opportunity. Montreal now is looking at moving the entire metropolitan area into the cavern, beginning on Saturday.

A member of the city’s planning committee, Marcel Archembault, sees the giant cavern that opens up deep underground Montreal’s Saint-Leonard Parc Pie-XII not far from Highway 40 as: ”…the most amazing money-saving opportunity for our city in this century.”

“It will stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer,” he said. “So no more huge utility bills for oil or natural gas.”

The massive cave that was just discovered by explorers was formed 15,000 years ago, experts say, as a result of pressure by the glaciers during the Ice Age.

“There’s plenty of water there too,” he said. “So there will be no need to build a separate reservoir for drinking water and taking showers.” The cave actually taps into the aquifer and explorers that discovered it used an inflatable canoe to get around, so now many Montrealers will be able to enjoy recreational boating, right from their front porches.

In spite of the rosy prognostications for Montreal’s exciting new green-energy initiative however, the city planners do see at least one cloud on the horizon after they make the move to take the city underground.

“Unfortunately, there is no glacial ice from 15,000 years ago remaining near there at all today,” said Archembault. “So after we set up everything again and have the city running smoothly down in the cavern, people will still need refrigerators to make ice cubes to chill their martinis and blend their smoothies.” Source: FNT Staff  

Photo credit: Original images at: CBC News / Société québécoise de spéléologie , Radio Canada International