The sad 10-year anniversary of the Lac-Mégantic disaster is approaching. However, the site of the bypass to get trains out of the city center has never given rise to so many disputes.
Ottawa announced on Saturday the end of the “by mutual agreement” negotiation period between Transport Canada and the owners residing on the route of the bypass. The expropriation of these 43 owners seems to be the obvious path.
“Victims of the tragedy are victims once again because they are coming to snatch part of their land,” said Ms.e Frédéric Paré, who represents around twenty owners. Only five of these customers have accepted the federal agreement, according to him. “There are several offers in the five figures. We are not in the amounts that change a person’s life. »
André Roy, of the Union of Forest Producers of Southern Quebec, which represents forest and agricultural owners in this file, protests the federal way of doing things, to the point that compensation for the stress suffered should be considered.
There are several offers in the five figures. We are not in the amounts that change a person’s life.
“The project we have before our eyes today is not the project [de] May 2018. We’re talking [dans certains tronçons] an excavation 28 meters deep in the rock and 150 meters wide! Dozens of owners have wells that will be affected by the construction of the bypass. »
“Good guarantees”
“At least one” well will be dried up by the construction of the railway, and “several” others “could see their capacity permanently reduced by 20 to 35%, which could cause an intermittent lack of water depending on consumption” , says the Transport Canada report.
Local wetlands will also suffer. “The construction could result in a permanent loss of up to 59 hectares of wetlands and up to 36 hectares of forest”, according to the federal government.
The measure planned to compensate for this deterioration is essentially financial. A sum of almost 5 million must be paid into the Fund for the protection of the environment and the water domain of the State.
The municipalities of Nantes, Lac-Mégantic and Frontenac called on an independent expert in hydrogeology to judge this 800-page report submitted last October. Julie Gauthier, from the firm Laforest Nova Aqua, explains to the To have to that the Canadian Pacific Railway offers “good guarantees” for those who run out of water.
The wells can be dug deeper and, if the quality of the water declines, treatment will be offered to keep the water of the same quality as before. However, she recognizes that some information is missing and that the feeling of insecurity is understandable. “There are commitments made by Canadian Pacific. But the confidence in the guarantee machine is not there, ”she believes.
Not just expropriations
An association was formed recently to block the construction of the 12.5 kilometer track. The Coalition of Collateral Victims of the Rail Bypass estimates that approximately 500 people will be directly or indirectly affected by this solution.
The plans are problematic, according to all residents interviewed by The dutybut it is above all the lack of answers that worries the residents.
“At their last public meeting, there were 17 of them and, at 17, they weren’t able to give us any answers,” said Renaud Martineau, who lives “307 feet” from the planned route.
“We have no answers to the questions we ask,” continues the sixty-year-old. “What will happen if we have a problem with a well? They’re going to hand out bottled water? […] And they make me believe that it won’t make a sound…”
At their last public meeting, there were 17 of them and, at 17, they were not able to give us any answers.
Owners also claim to lack information on the project. “For a question I asked, I was referred to Appendix 1. On the document I was given, Appendix 1 is empty,” Kurt Lucas says indignantly. “I don’t know how I’m going to get to the other part of my field. »
” [Au début du projet], they were 50 meters wide. At some point, the Canadian Pacific enters the scene and wants 150 meters wide. There is something wrong. »
Despite the amounts he considers insufficient, “it’s not a question of money, it’s a question of principle”. Trails cross its land which includes two maple groves. Rebuilding this heritage will be on the order of the inconceivable.
The other options
Opponents of the bypass plead for a “half-way” which would pass “in the city, but which would avoid the city center”, suggests André Roy.
Otherwise, he argues that the triage station has been relocated since the tragedy and that, consequently, “the possibility that a tragedy like [celle du 6 juillet 2013] happening again is no longer there”.
However, this option is unlikely to go forward. The announcement of the end of the negotiation period for the entire project was well received by the Mayor of Lac-Mégantic, Julie Morin. “For the City of Lac-Mégantic, it’s good news that we can move on to a subsequent stage of the project,” she said in an interview this weekend.
The representatives of the owners who will be expropriated must meet again with Transport Canada this week. A referendum will also take place this week in Frontenac to estimate social support for the project.
With The Canadian Press