To build new neighborhoods in the east of the city, Laval is currently carrying out work in wetlands which will have “a permanent impact on the shoreline of the Rivière des Prairies”, according to an environmental report submitted to the Ministry of the Environment of Quebec. Excavation operations were also carried out a few meters away, on a site that serves as a habitat for endangered species.
In order to bury the water pipes needed for the development of new residential projects in the east of Île Jésus, work is currently underway in wetlands on the banks of the Rivière des Prairies. Although the surfaces “will be vegetated”, the work will have “a permanent impact on the shoreline of the Rivière des Prairies over an area of 95 m2 “, we read in an environmental impact report that the City of Laval submitted to the Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change (MELCC), last June.
Work is also being carried out in an area where the copper redhorse is found, according to data from the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks (MFFP). Under the federal government’s Species at Risk Act, it is prohibited to destroy elements of the critical habitat of this “endangered” fish species, the only vertebrate endemic to Quebec.
Part of the site has already been cleared, and trucks and machinery are busy burying water pipes. Excavation work was also carried out on the other side of Lévesque Boulevard, on the site which is to accommodate a new district and where the former BASF chemical plant was located between 1969 and 1990.
Since then, the site has been transformed. It is now made up of wasteland and wetlands, 3.7 hectares of which form “a complex of swamps bordered by marshes,” according to the Ville de Laval report. Moreover, according to the most recent data from the MFFP, there are endangered species there, including the brown snake and the milk snake. The range of these reptiles is very limited in Quebec, and the main threat to their habitat is precisely urban sprawl, according to the findings of the MFFP.
At least two other endangered species are found in the terrestrial portion of the sector, but the information is “hidden” by the ministry in order to protect them, for example against poaching.
Asked about this work, the office of the new mayor, Stéphane Boyer, sent an email to To have to that “the City has obtained all the authorizations for this work”, specifying that “the development of this network will take place over several years” and that no deadline is set for the period of this development. At the time of writing these lines, the MELCC had still not answered the questions of the To have to.
“Old ways”
Beyond the destruction of wetlands, riparian strips and habitats of endangered species, the president of the Rivières Foundation, Alain Saladzius, deplores the drainage systems planned by the municipality and their harmful effects on other wetlands: “We don’t understand why we’ve come up with management like this. »
The projected system for the evacuation of water “relates to old ways of doing things” he believes. It will have a direct impact on the water tables of the sector and the natural environments of the sector which depend on it. “There is more and more talk of drying up, of the lowering of water in groundwater. And there, we put in place a system that will drain everything from the planned sector to send rainwater into the Rivière des Prairies. It will have an effect on the level of groundwater. »
“The water tables in the area will dry up, and the many wetlands in the area will suffer significant damage,” he says.
Compensation of $265,000
To carry out this work in wetlands, the City of Laval paid the Government of Quebec compensation of nearly $265,000, it is indicated in the report. Director General of the Society for Nature and Parks of Quebec, Alain Branchaud severely criticizes the decision to destroy wetlands by simply paying financial compensation.
In the same breath, he asks the government to correct the situation. “Rather than requiring an amount for the destruction of wetlands, promoters should be forced to compensate for it themselves by reserving part of the territory for the creation of wetlands. It would be a form of relocation to maintain biodiversity and ecosystem services, for example for water management or the preservation of different species. It should be part of common practice, ”he explains.
Instead, promoters tend to pay an amount to the government. This practice has been authorized since 2017 under the Act respecting the conservation of wetlands and bodies of water, which was supposed to put an end to the loss of these critical ecosystems. However, the destruction continues, and barely 2.6% of the approximately $100 million paid to the State has been used for the restoration or creation of wetlands, recently revealed The Press.
The case of Laval would therefore have been a great opportunity to act differently, according to Mr. Branchaud. “This is a place where it would have been possible to require the developer to create wetlands in the same area, rather than paying for the destruction of wetlands, which is a form of greenwashing. It would have been possible to respect the principle of no net loss, before proceeding with the destruction. »
The biologist also believes that the planned work is very likely to affect the habitat of species at risk, in particular birds and fish, even if the data are currently insufficient to have an accurate portrait of the impacts on wildlife. “There also seem to be impacts on a natural shoreline of the Rivière des Prairies. However, we must preserve these riparian strips, which serve as habitats for several species, but also as breeding grounds for fish species,” emphasizes Alain Branchaud.