Nearly 11 years after the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster, opponents of the bypass route who feel they have been ignored by the federal government are demanding new consultations from the Office of Public Hearings on the Environment (BAPE).
They demand that the 40% funding promised by the Quebec government be conditional on a “serious and independent” environmental impact assessment from the BAPE which is favorable to the outlined route, for this project estimated at several hundred million dollars. .
At a press conference in front of the Ministry of the Environment in Quebec on Monday, opponents argued that the chosen route will destroy hundreds of hectares of natural and wetlands, in addition to threatening the water table.
“If we really want to help the population of the Lac-Mégantic region, we must absolutely avoid creating another human, ecological and environmental disaster,” argued Yolande Boulanger, of the Coalition of Collateral Victims. This situation makes us live a nightmare which has repercussions on our health. »
During the drainage work on the route, 55 million liters of water will be dumped into the Chaudière River, lamented the mayor of Frontenac, Gaby Gendron.
More than 138 drinking water wells would be threatened, as well as an underground lake although protected by ministerial decree, all this to pass two trains per day, opponents report. No less than 110 hectares of wetlands will be destroyed, protested Kurt Lucas, of the Coalition of Collateral Victims.
The BAPE has already conducted consultations on the bypass project, but opponents argue that new data must be taken into account and that there is no social acceptability.
As rail transport is under federal jurisdiction, it is Ottawa which is leading this controversial project and financing it 60%, but opponents say they do not have the ear of the Trudeau government and that is why they are addressed to Quebec. No federal MP wants to bring their voice to the Commons, they say.
“The call really comes from above (at the Prime Minister’s office),” declared the mayor of Frontenac, Gaby Gendron.
“Justin Trudeau announced that there was going to be a bypass, whatever the cost, there will be one,” he continued. However, the local deputy is the conservative Luc Berthold.
“But he is from the party that was in power in 2013 when the tragedy occurred,” argued André Roy, from the union of forest producers in southern Quebec, affiliated with the Union of Agricultural Producers (UPA).
“Mr. Berthold is doing his best, but he is in opposition,” concluded Mr. Gendron.
In accordance with a commitment from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the federal Minister of Transport, Pablo Rodriguez, announced last October the start of work on the bypass.
Opponents say that the work has not yet started, but that the expropriations are progressing well.
MP Christine Labrie said she had not yet spoken about BAPE’s request with Quebec Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette.
Rail disaster
Remember that on July 6, 2013, the entire city center of Lac-Mégantic was razed by the worst rail disaster in Canadian history.
A convoy of 72 Montreal Maine and Atlantic cars carrying crude oil was parked in the nearby town of Nantes when its brake system failed after a fire in the locomotive. The train started rolling down the long slope all by itself in the middle of the night. It derailed in the heart of downtown Lac-Mégantic, near restaurants and bars, and killed 47 people.
The flow of burning oil escaping from the wagons devastated everything in its path.
Three MMA employees were found not guilty in 2018 of 47 charges of criminal negligence causing death.
The conductor, Thomas Harding, who pleaded guilty to a criminal charge of failing to sufficiently activate all the brakes to secure the train, served a six-month sentence at home.
In 2016, $450 million was raised to settle civil claims against MMA under the Creditors Arrangement Act.