The Quebec Minister of Agriculture believes that it is time to lift the “glass bell” which has for 20 years prevented Quebec farms from expanding their cultivated areas where the rivers are bad.
Since 2004, it has been prohibited to expand cultivated areas in more than 557 municipalities where watersheds are considered too degraded due to pollution with phosphorus, a fertilizer derived from slurry.
“There is a framework today which has been like a glass bell across Quebec for 20 years, then which has had its day,” declared Minister André Lamontagne in a telephone interview with The Press.
“We need to find a way to legally recognize people who have a positive contribution instead of a negative one to the agricultural land, and then allow them to increase areas under cultivation. »
Since the fall, Quebec has been consulting various stakeholders from the agricultural, municipal and environmental world with the aim of modernizing the Agricultural Operations Regulation by 2026.
An article published Thursday in The duty reported, on condition of anonymity, the comments of scientists from the Ministry of the Environment saying they were under political pressure to allow the expansion of cultivated areas even if various water tests show little or no improvement.
“We are not going in the right direction at all, we are accepting a deterioration,” said an official at Duty denouncing in the same breath “an interference” in his work.
Reaction from Minister Charette
At a press scrum in Quebec, Environment Minister Benoit Charette indicated that the changes made to the Agricultural Operations Regulation would not be to the detriment of the environment.
“What we made as a commitment to agricultural producers was to reduce the administrative burden. We are currently working with MAPAQ at this level, but in no way do we want to reduce environmental requirements, so at the administrative level yes, but not at the environmental level. »
Minister Lamontagne, for his part, affirms that he has “no intention” of endorsing “any relaxation” for poor students. “Even, I must say, we have to tighten the screw another three turns,” he stressed.
On the other hand, he wants to “give a break” to producers recognized for “their good practices”.
“We must give these people a chance, we must give them an opportunity to improve. Otherwise, it’s penalizing them forever,” he added.
How do you determine which farms are adopting best practices?
“It’s almost company by company depending on their practices, their types of culture, their arrangements. Ultimately, it’s going to be almost company by company, but we have to start somewhere,” he replied.
He cites riparian buffers and cover crops that prevent nutrients from leaching into waterways.
In a statement, the Order of Agronomists indicated that it was open to returning land to cultivation “conditionally on the application of a rigorous regulatory framework which takes into account the different realities of the regions. »
For its part, Équiterre speaks of a balancing act. “We are not for lifting the moratorium which is wall to wall and which is unconditional,” underlined Carole-Anne Lapierre, agronomist and analysis for the organization.
“The re-cultivation […] it is an incentive that is very strong and therefore has the potential to lead the entire agricultural community to want to move towards these agricultural practices,” she emphasizes.
But it’s also a gamble that is not without risk, she says. “It is certain that if we open the door to re-cultivation we will have to be more demanding. »