Local agriculture | Reassure us, Minister

You know that a bill is really controversial when those who should normally applaud it are worried and denounce it.

This is what is happening with Bill 103. This so-called “omnibus” bill contains a jumble of measures that even go to the upholstery of sofas. But it is those concerning the agricultural world that are making sparks.

The proposed changes open the door to small farms on a human scale. To organic cultivation. To local agriculture. A small revolution that has long been called for. And which is exciting at a time when new agricultural models are emerging and when we are talking about food autonomy for Quebec.

But now the approach is decried by natural allies of this approach.

We think of the Jean-Garon Institute, founded by the late Jean Pronovost, the man of the “Pronovost commission” who, in 2008, had proposed such a shift.

Or at Équiterre, an environmental organization that created organic baskets 25 years ago.

Among the people we thought we saw smiling and growling, we also find the Federation of the next generation of agriculture in Quebec. The Quebec Center for Environmental Law. The organization Vivre en ville.

The powerful Union des producteurs agricoles echoed their fears.

What’s going on ?

Essentially, these people welcome the goal of opening up the agricultural world to new models. But they are wary of the means. To encourage the emergence of small farms, agricultural land must be parceled out. However, without markers, many fear that this will accelerate urban sprawl.

We know that farmland is under great pressure in several regions of Quebec, in particular around Montreal. The developers covet them to erect bungalows and shopping centers. However, it is more difficult to defend 100 small agricultural lots than a single large one. And the developers dream of buying in square feet rather than 100 hectares.

The bill also modifies the analysis grid of the Commission for the Protection of the Agricultural Territory of Quebec (CPTAQ), the watchdog through which all agricultural dezoning must pass. This adds to the fears.

The Minister of Agriculture of Quebec, André Lamontagne, affirms that the concerns expressed are of “the imagination”. It is true that not everyone shares them. The Union paysanne, for example, is in favor of the bill. The Commission for the protection of agricultural land itself submitted a brief in favor of this.

But when so many people “imagine” the exact same risks, they cannot be dismissed out of hand. Minister André Lamontagne has a duty to reassure both the agricultural world and citizens about the effects of the legislative changes he is proposing.

These guarantees from the Minister are all the more necessary as the problem of agricultural dezoning is glaring. And that the CAQ, unfortunately, cannot be taken at its word on these issues.

In Quebec, the best agricultural land is found where the population is so concentrated: in the St. Lawrence Valley. The documentary Quebec, asphalt land, by journalist and agronomist Nicolas Mesly, shows how this leads to fierce competition for soils.

Far from setting itself up as a bulwark against the loss of agricultural land, the Legault government sometimes went so far as to encourage it. Let us remember the authorization to transform the vocation of 17 million square feet of agricultural land in the MRC of Montcalm, north of Montreal. Or the obsession for the third link in Quebec, which would promote urban sprawl.

Yes to small farms, then. But Minister André Lamontagne must show us that his plan to create them will not lead to a loss of farmland.

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