(Lac-Mégantic) The lawyers representing the people who will be expropriated with a view to building the Lac-Mégantic bypass have officially filed their request for an injunction to immediately suspend the expropriation process initiated by the federal government.
The expropriation of 43 residents aims to build a bypass for the railway line that crosses downtown Lac-Mégantic, where an uncontrollable convoy of tank cars derailed and caught fire on July 6, 2013, killing 47 people.
The 12.5 kilometer bypass was intended to help the city recover from the collective trauma experienced during the disaster. However, 10 years after the tragedy, work has still not started and the project has become a source of division and anger among the population of the region.
Ottawa confirmed in mid-June that construction would finally begin this fall, but the expropriated parties have not said their last word.
All his life, Raymond Savoie lived in a small stone house surrounded by farmland that was built by his great-grandfather nearly 100 years ago in Lac-Mégantic.
However, he and his wife learned last month that their house and part of their land will be expropriated on 1er August to complete the bypass project.
The government assured Mr. Savoie that his house would be moved, or dismantled stone by stone and rebuilt, but he does not believe it. “They want to bulldoze it,” he denounces.
Yolande Boulanger, 85, must lose nearly 36 acres of the farm where she has lived since 1964.
Mme Boulanger, who lost her 19-year-old grandson in the tragedy, points out that her opposition to the bypass goes beyond the loss of part of the cattle farm that has been owned by her late husband’s family since then. 1933.
According to her, the quality of the water could also suffer from the project, since she says she is convinced that it will be contaminated by the blasting and the work to come.
“If the bypass materializes, it will be another disaster,” she warns.
Many concerns
During public consultations in May, some 63 parties and their lawyers raised objections to the proposed bypass, according to the Hearing Officer’s report.
In particular, they lamented that the proposed route has more curves than the current track – which could cause further derailments.
They also recalled that polls show that the majority of residents in the three communities along the bypass, including Lac-Mégantic, oppose the project.
Additionally, they argued that alternate routes were not properly researched and the price of the project skyrocketed.
But the most common concern was the potential environmental impacts: loss of wetlands, lowering of the water table and degradation of private wells.
A hydrogeology report published in May 2022 by the firm Englobe noted that several wetlands would likely be affected, either directly by construction or by the lowering of the water table. Wells, as well as surface water bodies like rivers, could be affected.
One of the lawyers representing the expropriated parties, Frédéric Paré, affirms that the route of the bypass was chosen “on the basis of the costs of 2017 and, above all, of the expertise that we had in 2017”.
“At that time, there was no question of wetlands, of building a bridge and digging a canyon,” he recalls. The project has changed a lot. »
According to him, most of the environmental assessments were done before construction details were known. The number of expropriated lands has also increased significantly, he adds.
Me Paré believes the proposed route was chosen in part because it was the least expensive — about $133 million when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and then Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard announced joint funding in 2018.
Transport Canada does not advance on the most recent cost estimate, but Me Paré and opponents of the project estimate it will now cost nearly $1 billion for what amounts to a “gift” to a private rail company.
Ottawa wants to move forward
Transport Canada remains fully committed to the bypass, which will reduce the number of residences near the railway from 265 to 8, and reduce level crossings from 16 to 4.
However, the final draft has still not been approved.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Canadian Transportation Agency suggested that Central Maine and Quebec Railway Canada’s application was incomplete. The agency sent a letter to the company in February asking for more information, including how the findings of a recent hydrogeological study were incorporated into the project’s environmental impact assessment.
Canadian Pacific Kansas City, which owns the railroad in Lac-Mégantic, says in an email that the transit agency’s request requires “significant additional work” by the company and Transport Canada. . The company promises that it is working “diligently” to complete its portion.
For her part, the Mayor of Lac-Mégantic, Julie Morin, maintains that the bypass is necessary because of the sloping topography of Lac-Mégantic, the “collective trauma” of the derailment and the ever-increasing number of cars carrying hazardous materials in the downtown core.
Passing through Lac-Mégantic for the commemorations of the 10th anniversary of the tragedy, Mr. Trudeau also assured that his government will go ahead with the bypass.
“I know farmers are concerned about the loss of farmland, but for me it’s not even an issue. The tragedy, the trauma and the pain that people still experience every day with the train that continues to pass through this city, we must end it and that is what we will do, ”said the Prime Minister.
Despite everything, for the moment, Mr. Savoie and his wife have no intention of starting to make their boxes.
Even though stress and uncertainty have forced them to take sleeping pills, they will fight until the end, hoping that Mr. Savoie will be able to end his days in the house where he was born.