Another habitat of the chorus frog, an increasingly endangered species, has been destroyed in Quebec. But this time, the company responsible for the damage will have to pay a $25,000 fine for violating the federal decree that protected the site.
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) indicated Tuesday in a press release that Les Entreprises Antoine Stabile & fils inc. pleaded “guilty” to one count of violating the prohibitions set out in the emergency decree aimed at protecting the western chorus frog.
Concretely, this company specializing in services related to construction sites circulated heavy machinery in the fall of 2022 in an area located in La Prairie and protected by a federal decree since 2016.
It was ECCC agents who noticed this violation. The company was therefore ordered last week to pay a fine of $25,000 for this violation of the Species at Risk Act.
Valid decree
The federal decree was published in response to the work of a developer, authorized by the Quebec government, which destroyed one of the last habitats of the endangered amphibian. The legal saga finally ended in 2020, when the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the decree.
The Federal Court previously ruled in 2018 that protecting the endangered species on private land was entirely constitutional. It thus rejected the request for judicial review from the real estate developer and builder Groupe Maison Candiac.
Last year, Hydro-Québec was ordered to pay a fine of $40,000 for violating the Species at Risk Act by carrying out work directly in the tree frog’s critical habitat in La Prairie. The State Corporation had also violated the federal decree.
Destruction in Longueuil
The City of Longueuil also announced earlier this year its intention to complete construction work on a section of road which had been stopped in 2021 because it was destroying one of the last habitats of the chorus frog.
Longueuil decided in 2021 to extend Béliveau Boulevard over a distance of 300 meters, in order to allow real estate development on both sides of the road, in the heart of an essential habitat for the species. . The Legault government had also authorized the project, despite an opinion from its experts warning of the impacts on the species.
Longueuil was therefore able to destroy a large part of the wetlands in the area, before work was stopped following legal action by the Quebec Environmental Law Center and the Society for Nature and Parks. Subsequently, the federal government finally adopted a decree protecting the habitat, which had largely been destroyed.
More than 90% of the chorus frog’s Quebec habitat has been destroyed in recent decades, mainly due to urban sprawl.
In an assessment of “threats” dated March 2021, experts from the Quebec government sounded the alarm, emphasizing that less than 25% of the populations present in Quebec will be able to survive, unless a curbs are placed on growing threats.
“Consequently, the conservation actions planned for [leur] recovery must at least make it possible to protect and restore » breeding sites, such as those which were destroyed in Longueuil.