Ottawa’s decision to decree expropriations to pass the Lac-Mégantic bypass, announced last week, simply does not pass in the middle.
The affected owners, the unions of forest producers and local agricultural producers announced on Tuesday that they will soon go to court to try to have this decision overturned.
“All together, we will stand, we will fight until the end and we will go before a judge who is impartial. A judge of the Federal Court is an impartial judge,” said Ms.e Jean-Claude Boutin, one of the lawyers representing the owners.
Their lawyers will thus file an application in Federal Court for judicial review and an injunction to immediately suspend the expropriation process. They will then seek to have the court annul the notices of expropriation issued by the Minister of Public Services and Supplies, Helena Jaczek.
Public hearings ignored
Producer organizations, as well as landlords and the Collateral Victims Coalition (CVC) criticize the minister for ignoring the investigation report prepared by Mr.e Julie Banville at the end of the public hearings conducted in the file.
They recall that no less than 1,500 objections to the project were presented, in particular for reasons of damage to wetlands, access to drinking water in the region and the risks that will always be present with the new route.
In a long press release, the CVC protests against the reasons given in the Minister’s Statement of Reasons to justify its decision as well as the decision to take possession of the properties within a shortened period of 46 days rather than the 90 days provided by the law. The Coalition also denounces Ottawa’s refusal to commit to returning the seized properties if ever the Office des transports – which has not yet started its review of the file – issues an unfavorable opinion on the project.
No social acceptability
The Coalition argues that three polls and a referendum have demonstrated the non-acceptability of society in proportions varying from 77% to 92% of opponents and that two of the three municipalities concerned have withdrawn their support for the project as presented. She also criticizes the minister for advancing multiple falsehoods in her reasons, particularly in terms of safety, environmental impact and cost overruns.
“We don’t understand the government. We do not understand this haste to act. We do not understand why we still want to set fire to the powder. The people who are caught in this situation are disgusted to see what is happening and there, we are stoking the fire”, for his part, protested Me Frédéric Paré, who also defends the owners concerned.
The application for judicial review and injunction is due in early July.
The expropriation aims to build a bypass for the railway line that crosses downtown Lac-Mégantic, where a convoy of out-of-control tank cars derailed and caught fire on July 6, 2013, killing 47 people. Some 5.4 million liters of oil burned for four days, destroying around 30 buildings in the heart of the municipality.