The new piggery projects authorized by the Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change (MELCC) have grown significantly since 2018. This progress is accompanied by protest movements on the part of citizens who oppose the development of the sector in their backyard, while the promoters have found the trick to avoid having their project submitted to the examination of the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE).
This was revealed in a dossier published a week ago in The duty. Thus, the number of piggery projects that received the blessing of the MELCC rose to 26 per year on average between 2011 and 2017, rising to 44 in 2018, 53 in 2019 and 67 in 2020. Locally, at least five projects have been decried by citizens’ committees, notably in Maricourt in Estrie, in Adstock, near Thetford-Mines, and in Saint-Adelphe, in Mauricie.
The Saint-Adelphe project is particularly revealing. Patates Dolbec, through its subsidiary Cultures Excel, has reached an agreement with Avantis Olymel for the operation of three new piggeries housing a total of 11,997 pigs in a row in this village of less than 1,000 souls. A subsidiary of the Coop fédérée, Avantis Olymel is a major player in Quebec’s agri-food industry, which sells more than 350,000 hogs a year on Canadian and foreign markets. Patates Dolbec intends to use the manure produced to fertilize its land and thus replace the chemical fertilizers it uses, while Olymel will process the meat to sell it. It’s “win-win”, as they say.
Under MELCC regulations, a piggery project with 4,000 head or more must be the subject of public hearings conducted by the BAPE, which then produces its report. But there it is, Avantis Olymel knows its business and the rules: it involves splitting the project into three barns of 3,999 pigs, 150 meters apart, and that’s it.
This avoids the holding of real public consultations, and especially an assessment of the social acceptability of the project. As provided by the regulations, a “consultation” took place, but only after the MELCC had given its approval to the project, and it is only an information session. It is a bogus exercise, but the regulations is so done.
In Saint-Denis-sur-Richelieu, a production of 20,000 pigs has been added over the last ten years with 3,996 pigs or less at a time, projects led by two brothers, Pier-Luc and Maxime Archambault, who understand very well what “the right to produce” means in an agricultural zone.
With its regulations, the MELCC allows the pork industry to do indirectly what it cannot do directly. With regard to Saint-Adelphe, the officials did not see fit to inform the minister of the situation, and the ministerial authorizations were issued. The government could impose a review of the BAPE, but this power, conferred by the Environment Quality Act (EQA), has never been used.
It should be remembered that 70% of pork production in Quebec is exported. If we slaughter 7.1 million pigs a year, it is not for food self-sufficiency imperatives, but for economic reasons. It is an industry that must be competitive on the international level and rely on techniques that its competitors use, in particular the feeding of animals with genetically modified corn (GMO) from intensive cultivation. Seen on a strictly economic level, it is a question of productivity, and the noble principles of sustainable agriculture take over.
In addition, the EQA does not require that we take into account the cumulative impacts of manure from a pig barn that is added to the others. This is a shortcoming deplored in particular by the Center québécois du droit de l’environnement, but also by several experts. The quantities of phosphorus contained in manure spilled on the fields are calculated, but the actual loss of phosphorus into waterways is not monitored. It is a piecemeal approach that does not sufficiently take into account the effects on each of the watersheds.
Finally, the expansion of the pork industry leads to problems of cohabitation with citizens, who are increasingly numerous from the city to settle in the countryside.
In the early 2000s, the proliferation of piggeries led to an environmental disaster, followed by a moratorium. The Legault government cannot stand idly by and allow the industry to use a ploy to circumvent the spirit of the law. Nor can he allow discontent to escalate, and the deterioration of land and water bodies to continue.