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Yes, the plan to light up the Jacques Cartier Bridge is expensive — nearly $40 million. But cost isn’t the only problem with the project.

It is an act of deliberate pollution, specifically of light pollution.

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When Linda Gyulai wrote about the project last November, she quite rightly focused on the cost, comparing it with other bridges and structures lit up “to make a statement” and “project an image.” Montreal’s project was, pardon the pun, light-years ahead of the others in cost.

That was the point she and an accompanying editorial made, and quite convincingly: The project is too grandiose and far too expensive in times of austerity.

The other problem is light pollution, which the editorial mentioned briefly.

Light pollution is the result of poorly designed light fixtures or badly oriented lights that send a portion, sometimes up to nearly 90 per cent of the total light output, into the sky.