The number of projects to expand or create piggeries has been on the rise in Quebec since 2018. In all four corners in the province, citizen opposition is also on the rise and clueless people demand more guarantees, especially environmental. More than 15 years after the end of the moratorium, are piggeries heading for a new crisis?
In Saint-Adelphe, in Mauricie, Rang Price is for the moment very quiet, between fields and forests, like the village of less than 1,000 inhabitants. But since December, discontent has been growing in this Mauricie countryside.
The project for a new pigsty is of great concern to local residents: a farm of 11,997 pigs will soon be set up there.
The number just below the 12,000 pig mark is no coincidence: distributed in three buildings more than 150 meters apart, the production of 3,999 pigs per site — rather than 4,000 — makes it possible to avoid a review by the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE).
It is therefore a development project to within three pigs that allows the company Cultures Excel Inc., belonging to Patates Dolbec, to present these three operations as being distinct.
Véronique Bégin, who lives near the future site, is furious: “They circumvent the spirit of the law by increasing the number of requests just below the threshold. »
The very short deadlines for sending comments to the municipality add to the impression “that everything is orchestrated and already decided in advance”, also says Nathalie Lefebvre, another resident of the sector. “We are presented with a fait accompli. The law is thus made, it is deplorable, ”she says.
Rules for Piggery Projects
The municipality indeed held a public consultation on December 14, where the promoters presented their project. People then had until January 5 to make suggestions. The associated documents were only available for viewing in person at the municipal office between December 14 and 23, before the holiday break.
Mayor of Saint-Adelphe for 20 years, Paul Labranche explains that the approach nevertheless complies with the parameters established by the Law on land use planning and urban planning (LAU).
“It’s not a question of being for or against the project. The agricultural area is made to produce and the project meets all standards. The municipality has both hands tied from there, ”he summarizes.
To move forward, a new breeding project or expansion of an existing operation must first obtain a certificate of authorization from the Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change (MELCC). .
The project is then submitted to the municipality, which must organize a public consultation according to the details and deadlines defined by the LAU, as Mr. Labranche explains.
Following this public consultation, a report must be adopted, the date of which has been set for February 7 in Saint-Adelphe. The municipality then grants a building permit. It can impose conditions on this permit from a list of five mitigation measures dictated by the LAU.
Producers fight back
The promoters of the project deny having circumvented the Act by subtracting only one pig per building from the threshold to avoid a review by the BAPE.
“The Ministry of the Environment has done its job, they are professionals,” replies Hugo d’Astous, general manager of Patates Dolbec, to the critics.
The animals raised in these buildings will be made available to Olymel. “We don’t circumvent anything, we respect all the rules”, also replies Marquis Roy, the technical director of pork production at this slaughter and processing giant.
Patates Dolbec plans to use the manure produced by the pigs to fertilize land among the 10,000 acres it owns in the region. “We see it as a better way to add organic matter” compared to chemical fertilizers.
“We didn’t hide anything from the project. It is perhaps the term “consultation” that should be revised, because it is confusing for citizens”, nevertheless notes Mr. d’Astous. He also promises to carry out a study on the capacity of the water table to supply the water installations.
An outdated policy?
The obligation to hold a public consultation dates back to 2004. It was put in place after an in-depth assessment by the BAPE on pork production. A guide published by Quebec the year following this examination writes it black on white: “exercise [la consultation] is in no way intended to judge the relevance of the project, but rather to make known its planning, advantages and disadvantages.
This is what adds to the anger of the citizen committee in Saint-Adelphe: “It’s a real masquerade during which we are drowned in information without being able to decide”, deplores Mme Begin.
“To us, it’s an irregular process that makes no sense. The law is not there to protect the population,” adds Ms.me Lefebvre.
Beyond the reform of these procedures, it is the environmental impact that the citizens’ committee wants to have the time to document. Odors and the decline in the value of surrounding properties are a concern, but the quality of drinking water and rivers is an even more major issue, underline these two women. “It’s not agriculture, it’s a pig factory,” says Ms.me Begin.
By phoning the municipality and several deputies in the region, we are trying to obtain in extremis an additional delay, the time to “have the project examined by independent scientists”, says Ms.me Begin.
The Sainte-Anne, Portneuf and Chevrotière sector watershed organization (CAPSA) only became aware of the project on Monday, 12 days after the end of the consultation period. “In this kind of project, the ideal would be for us to be informed much earlier and present during important exchanges such as a public session. We have a lot of relevant information that can be shared, especially with the municipality,” calmly explains Chantal Leblanc, CAPSA’s communications manager.
The Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, refused this week to trigger a BAPE himself in Saint-Adelphe.
A petition is also circulating on the site of the National Assembly to suspend the authorizations granted to the project of three buildings, a petition which had collected, at the time when these lines were written, more than 600 signatures.