Municipalities that are struggling to fight against clearcutting and illegal businesses set up on agricultural land are asking Quebec to provide the Commission for the Protection of Land and Agricultural Activities (CPTAQ) with the means to hire more investigators, to help them preserve the land.
“For years, in our cities, we have had cases where the owners of agricultural land are using it illegally. That’s a problem, we receive complaints, ”says Johanne Beaulac, president of the Metropolitan Table of Rural Municipalities of Greater Montreal and mayor of Saint-Philippe.
La Table, which brings together 19 municipalities whose territory is made up of more than 80% of agricultural land, asks the Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ) to intervene. Several cities also adopted a resolution to this effect in October. “The CPTAQ lacks staff to follow up on complaints. Since we are committed to protecting our farmland, we are asking that it receive funding to hire more investigators, ”said Mr.me Beaulac.
The CPTAQ has nine investigators to cover the entire territory of Quebec, a number considered largely insufficient. “If there are clear cuts or heavy machinery storage, the municipality will intervene and file a complaint. An investigator from the CPTAQ will come and see [les faits], but they do not always come back to make sure that it has been respected, explains Julie Boivin, mayor of Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines. So we see the clearcut that continues. So the municipality must intervene. “
These situations take up their resources and sometimes generate “impressive” bills for legal fees. “We tell ourselves that if the CPTAQ had intervened quickly, we would not be there,” she said. The mayor adds that the people at fault know that the Commission is not very present on the ground, and some take advantage of it.
The mayor of Saint-Mathieu-de-Beloeil nods. “Citizens tell us that if we do nothing, they will do it too. So it’s snowballing, says Normand Teasdale. We mainly have people who buy property in an agricultural zone and who decide to do a commercial activity. We send infringement notices, but since that is the responsibility of the Commission, it is difficult to move the file forward. “
And attorney fees can escalate quickly when municipalities have to turn to Superior Court. “In one of our cases, we have a judgment against an individual, but it must also be enforced. So far, we have spent $ 180,000 on him alone, not counting the other cases in dispute. For a small municipality, that’s a lot of money, ”says Guy Charbonneau, who has just left his post as mayor in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines and who has met with the CPTAQ on this subject. “It may take ten years to settle, while the CPTAQ can issue orders,” he adds.
More funding needed
The CPTAQ mentions for its part that its nine investigators are located in two offices, in Quebec and Longueuil, and that they have a lot of trips to do in places that are sometimes very distant. “Would we like to have more funding from the government to have more investigators, of course the answer is yes,” says Me Anne Des Roches, Director of the Legal Affairs and Investigations Department of the CPTAQ, in an interview with The duty.
The team is small for the territory it has to cover, and is sometimes incomplete due to retirements or unpaid or maternity leave. In addition, there is a large volume of files to be processed and an accumulated backlog.
The Commission has nevertheless been working since 2019 to become more efficient and improve its processing times. She also migrated her files to a new, more optimal system, according to her. “We have integrated risk management into our way of doing things”, underlines Me Rocks. The complaints are not all of the same seriousness, and the CPTAQ focuses its efforts on places where there is a “permanent impact on the agricultural zone”. “A sand and gravel pit operating in the middle of an agricultural field, we are definitely going to intervene,” she says. She adds that the two “major crimes” in agricultural areas are the cutting of maple trees and the removal of topsoil.
The CPTAQ is also active in avoiding duplication of work with the Ministry of the Environment. “Anything related to contamination, such as backfill, we let them act first because their law goes further than ours,” she said. But the municipalities must also play their role, she thinks, recalling that they can deliver tickets or request an injunction. “We have to keep talking to each other, because they have a role to play. We have an ordering power that can make things easier, but we must not neglect that they are the ones who are there, ”she said.
For its part, the MAPAQ cabinet indicated by email to To have to be “sensitive to the concerns of the Metropolitan Community of Montreal, which, like us, wishes to protect agricultural land”. “We encourage collaborative work with the municipal sector and the Ministry of the Environment which makes it possible to multiply the day before on our territory”, one writes.