(Ottawa) Ottawa ends the impasse on the illegal Kanesatake dump and sides with dissident leaders. The assessment of contaminants on the site must begin as soon as possible and it will be the W8banaki Tribal Council which will be responsible for it, writes Minister Patty Hajdu in a letter including The Press got a copy. The file has dragged on for years due to an internal conflict within the Band Council.
“It remains urgent to take action so that site characterization work can begin in the spring of 2024,” writes the Minister of Indigenous Services. Any additional delay increases the risk that this work will be interrupted by the arrival of winter, thus significantly postponing subsequent work on the site. »
This work must also include mitigating the nauseating odor that emanates from the dump during the summer, according to a source familiar with the matter. This is a first step which would eventually lead to the decontamination of the land, the cost of which is estimated at 100 million by the Quebec government. Ottawa has never advanced any amount.
“I am counting on your collaboration so that this work starts as soon as possible this spring, and to try to find common ground with the company’s shareholders so that they allow access to the site,” adds Mme Hajdu.
The letter was sent to band council members about a week ago.
“A unilateral decision” taken without the entire community being consulted, denounces Grand Chief Victor Bonspille in an interview. He is furious to see the minister siding with the dissident leaders and questions W8banaki’s choice. “I have never seen any description of work they have already done on contaminated land,” he adds.
He would have preferred to retain the services of Sanexen, a Brossard company specializing in site restoration and contaminated soil management.
Crisis at the Band Council
Kanesatake is grappling with the G & R Recycling site, an illegal dump that leaks toxic water, but the seven leaders cannot agree on how to remedy the situation.
Investigations of The Press last year showed that this brownish water exceeds by 144 times the concentration of sulphides considered safe for the survival of fish. The dump thus pollutes the waterways of the community and neighboring municipalities, in addition to generating nauseating odors. G & R Recyclage is owned by brothers Robert and Gary Gabriel, both of whom have long criminal pasts.
The Band Council is divided into two factions. On one side, there is the great chef Victor Bonspille and his twin sister Valerie Bonspille; on the other, the five other chefs, including the former grand chef Serge Otsi Simon. The Press was unable to reach him Friday. Minister Hajdu offered them the help of a mediator in January, without success.
The dissident leaders, who have the majority, wanted to move forward with W8banaki, but they also sought assurances from the federal government that it will fully cover the cost of cleaning up the site.
W8banaki is the Tribal Council of the Abenaki bands of Odanak and Wôlinak, in Center-du-Québec. It offers various technical services to indigenous communities and municipalities. The two factions also disagree over the transfer of title to the site to the Band Council.
Regional players are asking questions
The Bloc member for Mirabel, Jean-Denis Garon, also questions the choice of W8banaki. “It seems to me at first glance that this is not the kind of extremely advanced expertise that a company like W8banaki has,” he argued. This would be a major engineering project for decontamination, so we can be skeptical and we will ask questions to the minister’s office, obviously. »
W8banaki is due to hold a meeting on Monday on the work it will begin on the G & R Recyclage site and has offered to answer questions from The Press afterwards. Minister Hajdu writes in her letter that her department “has collaborated on several occasions” with the Tribal Council and that the Ministry of Indigenous Services “will provide the necessary funding shortly.”
The mayor of Oka, Pascal Quevillon, is surprised that his municipality was not consulted by the federal government given that toxic water from the dump flows there.
I would be curious to know the method of proceeding that was chosen because we were not informed of that at all, he reacted. You teach me today.
Pascal Quevillon, mayor of Oka
He hopes that “the waste will be taken to an appropriate place”. “To stop the bleeding, we have to get the debris out of there and make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he added.
The Gabriel brothers obtained authorization, in 2015, from the Quebec Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change to operate a sorting center for construction materials on the site located at the northern end of the Mohawk territory. , landlocked between agricultural lands of Oka, Mirabel and Saint-Placide.
With Tristan Péloquin, The Press
The story so far
2015
The Quebec Ministry of the Environment authorizes the G & R Recyclage sorting center to set up on the Mohawk territory of Kanesatake despite the heavy criminal past of its owners, brothers Robert and Gary Gabriel.
2017
The Gabriel brothers are expanding their dump illegally. Thousands of tonnes of rubbish are dumped in an unsuitable location, crossed by natural waterways.
2020
The Quebec Ministry of the Environment revokes the certificate of authorization allowing the operation of the G & R Recyclage sorting center. The owners get away with a fine.
October 2023
Tension rises at the Kanesatake Band Council after the adoption of a motion of censure proposed by Grand Chief Victor Bonspille to exclude five chiefs from an opposing faction.
May 2024
The federal government ends the impasse and announces that it will fund the W8banaki Tribal Council to conduct a contaminant assessment at the site.