It’s not just journalists who are tasting the medicine of redacted pages in their requests for access to information, since it is now the turn of a group of citizens to denounce the government’s lack of transparency.
Activists against the construction of a bridge over the Trois Pistoles River have been trying without success for months to obtain all the information found in a study on the extension of Highway 20 in Bas-Saint-Laurent.
After reading the texts from our Office of Investigation on Access to Information, a member of the “The 20 Bridge Doesn’t Stand Up” movement, Laurent Deslauriers, contacted The newspaper on behalf of several shocked citizens.
This is because, for almost two years, the Quebec Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility has refused to disclose information on the environmental consequences caused by this project, he maintains.
50 redacted pages
The bad experience began after the re-inscription of the project in the Quebec Infrastructure Plan by the CAQ government, in the March 2022 budget.
Via access to information, the movement got its hands on a copy of a geotechnical study, but 50 of the 53 pages before the annexes had been completely redacted.
This “extreme” redaction was then denounced by activists from Trois-Pistoles, but also by Mayor Philippe Guilbert who asked himself in the local media “why are we hiding information from people?”
The group also highlights the fact that other geotechnical studies for infrastructure projects of this type have already been revealed without redaction.
The spokesperson for the group “The 20 bridge doesn’t stand up”, Sébastien Rioux, during a press conference in 2018.
Photo provided by “The 20 bridge doesn’t stand up”
Letter to Mme Guilbault
Last November, the spokesperson for the group “The 20 bridge does not stand up”, Sébastien Rioux, returned to the charge by writing to Deputy Prime Minister Geneviève Guilbault.
In his letter, he notably asks Mme Guilbault, who is also the Minister of Transport, to send him the unredacted version of the study.
This request will be quickly rejected by the General Directorate of Major Road Projects in Northern and Eastern Quebec.
“All of the studies related to its design must be updated as part of the update of its concept study,” we can read in the response.
Laurent Deslauriers, who contacted the minister’s office, is outraged by the behavior of the CAQ.
“While the government indicated last fall that it wanted to be transparent, in particular by creating two committees, including one with citizens, it is surprising to say the least to hide this information,” he says.
The minister booed
A week before this letter was sent, Geneviève Guilbault made a surprise visit to Trois-Pistoles.
However, the Deputy Prime Minister did not receive a very warm welcome, being heavily booed by the activists on the site of the future construction site.
Mme Guilbault then remained silent, announcing the creation of two new committees linked to the project, including one to ensure environmental monitoring in the Trois Pistoles River sector.
The extension of the 20 divides the population of Bas-Saint-Laurent while a very large majority of citizens and elected officials, particularly in Rimouski, are in favor of this new section.
Meanwhile in the country of Victor-Lévy Beaulieu in Trois-Pistoles, many are calling for the improvement of the current Route 132 rather than the construction of a highway.