ICAO's move to new premises in Montreal, the city where it has been located since it was founded more than 50 years ago, was celebrated on 5 December 1996 at an inauguration ceremony attended by the Prime Minister of Canada, the Premier of Quebec and the Mayor of Montreal.
Hosted jointly by the Government of Canada and ICAO, the official ceremony in the building's assembly hall included a colourful march of flags representing the Contracting States. The procession to live, moving music - with many of the standard bearers dressed in native costume - underscored the size of the organization's membership roll as 184 flags, led by the ICAO flag, were carried by volunteers through the crowded hall.
The ceremony was witnessed by close to 1,000 people. Special guests included ministers of the Canadian and Quebec governments, officials of the city of Montreal, the dean of the diplomatic corps in Canada, representatives of the consular corps in Montreal, members of the Council of ICAO, and representatives of the aviation community and international organizations. The staff of the Secretariat - over 500 strong - occupied more than half of the assembly hall.
![[Inauguration ceremony]](/icao/gifs/inaug.gif)
ICAO moved to the new site in downtown Montreal from headquarters that it had occupied for the past 20 years and which it had long outgrown. Membership in the United Nations agency has risen substantially since 1976, when there were just 132 Contracting States. The assembly hall and other conference facilities of the former headquarters could not keep pace with the demand.
The modern 15-storey office building and conference block, linked by a spacious atrium, provide a workplace for some 800 people. Unlike the previous headquarters, the new premises is a dedicated facility that houses only the staff of the ICAO Secretariat and delegations from the Contracting States as well as representatives from some other international aviation organizations.
The 40,000-square-metre building, provided by the host country, Canada, is equipped with numerous meeting rooms to accommodate the delegates and experts that gather regularly in Montreal from around the world to focus on a wide range of international aviation issues. Its vast assembly hall seats 900.
On this historic occasion, the importance of ICAO to the successful development of international civil aviation, and the crucial role played by aviation in the development of world trade and harmony, was on everyone's mind.
ICAO Council President Dr. Assad Kotaite expressed gratitude to the governments of Canada, Quebec and the city of Montreal for providing the facilities that "assist us so fully in the success of our mission and the achievement of our vision."
He stressed the significance played by ICAO, a specialized agency of the United Nations, in promoting peaceful relations. Citing the preamble to the Chicago Convention, which led to the establishment of the organization in 1944, Dr. Kotaite stated that the development of international civil aviation "can greatly help and preserve friendship and understanding and promote cooperation among nations and peoples of the world upon which the peace of the world depends."
In a continuing effort to strive for the safe and orderly development of civil aviation worldwide, ICAO had become a respected symbol of international cooperation, he indicated.
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien expressed the pride of all Canadians in hosting the UN agency for over 50 years. "In carrying out its mission," Mr. Chretien stated, "ICAO has played a key role through the second half of this century in developing international air transport, ensuring safe travel, shrinking the distances between nations and bringing people closer together." Canada, he stated, was "firmly committed to ICAO's raison d'etre."
Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard, looking to the future, predicted success in the organization's efforts to address aviation issues.
"The role of ICAO is tremendously important given the crucial and complex developments in aviation," he said, expressing confidence that the organization will play an important and stimulating role in the years ahead.
"Today, ICAO can count not only on the 52 States that signed the Chicago Convention in 1944, but on the cooperation of 184 member States." The number and cultural diversity represented by those countries, Mr. Bouchard commented, would help the organization find solutions to the challenges facing aviation.
Montreal Mayor Pierre Bourque commented on the value of the international agency to the city that it has called home since its birth. The presence of ICAO in Montreal, he stated, had been "a great contribution to our international image and to our title as the world aviation capital." It had contributed, he pointed out, to making the city a centre where 50 international organizations carry out important work in such areas as the environment, culture, education and the economy.
ICAO Secretary General Dr. Philippe Rochat lauded the merits of the new building - with its more effective layout and better facilities - and predicted that the new facility will stimulate productivity and enable ICAO "to do more and better with less."
Dr. Rochat said the six-storey atrium, facilitating access between the office tower and the conference hall, "emphasizes better the link between those two pillars of ICAO life - the work of the Secretariat and the many meetings of the governing bodies and panels of the organization."
The architecture of the building, he stated, "has created a favourable human environment."
The guests of honour, together with the ICAO Council President and Secretary General, signed a commemorative scroll to be mounted eventually in the building's atrium, and the event's master of ceremonies, ICAO Public Information Officer Denis Chagnon, concluded the formal ceremony by introducing a choir.
"World peace is an underlying component of the vision of the International Civil Aviation Organization," Mr. Chagnon said in prelude to a song about the quest for peace on earth which was performed in six languages.
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