This week marks five years since the reform of the Environment Quality Act (EQA) came into effect. Despite repeated requests in recent years, we are still awaiting the entry into force of a public register by the government, a must for preserving the environment and guaranteeing the rights of the population.
The EQA, the main environmental protection law in Quebec, was reformed in 2018, among other things to improve access to information. Among the articles added is Article 118.5, which provides for the creation of a public register where the ins and outs of projects authorized or awaiting authorization can be seen with a simple click. The addition of this register to the law is a major step forward in terms of access to information for the population. However, five years later, this register has still not seen the light of day.
A register, an essential transparency tool
Access to environmental information is essential to enable the population to ensure respect for its right to a healthy environment. The law provides that everyone has the right to live in a healthy environment. The law also provides that it is possible to infringe this right by authorizing projects and activities that will have an impact on the environment.
Without knowing the contaminants that are emitted into the environment or the nature and location of the activities that have an impact on their environment, it is much more complex to ensure respect for this right. Without a register, it is difficult, if not impossible, to know if the activities are really carried out within the legal and regulatory limits.
A register, a beneficial administrative solution
Making information more easily and quickly accessible also reduces the administrative burden. Currently, to obtain this information, even public information, it is necessary to submit an access to information request. This request was processed by the Ministry of the Environment, but it struggled to respond to it within the time allowed.
In short, the establishment of the registry would not only be excellent news for the protection of the environment and the protection of the rights of the population, but would also be a means of solving certain administrative problems. A win-win situation that must be put in place soon.
This is why we are today demanding that the government commit, within the next thirty days, to implementing this long-awaited essential register in 2023. Our rights to a healthy environment and access to information depend on it.
* Also signed this text:
Colleen Thorpe, Executive Director, Equiterre
Laurence Guénette, Coordinator and Spokesperson, League for Rights and Freedoms
Michaël Nguyen, President, Professional Federation of Journalists of Quebec
Sabaa Khan, Lawyer, Executive Director, David Suzuki Foundation (Quebec)
Denis Bolduc, General Secretary, Quebec Federation of Labor
Chantal Levert, General Coordinator, Quebec Network of Environmental Groups
Cyril Frazao, Acting Director General, Nature Quebec
Alain Branchaud, General Manager, SNAP Quebec
Anne Dionne, Second Vice-President, Central Trade Unions of Quebec
Laure Waridel, Ph.D. ecosociologist, co-initiator of Mères au front
Sylvain Gaudreault, former MP for Jonquière (2007-2022)
André Bélanger, Executive Director, Rivers Foundation
Dr. Claudel Pétrin-Desrosiers, President, Quebec Association of Physicians for the Environment
Martin Vaillancourt, Director General, National Group of Regional Environmental Councils of Quebec
Thibault Rehn, coordinator, Vigilance OGM
Elisabeth Patterson, lawyer, Dionne Schulze senc
Alison Munson, Full Professor, Forest Ecology, Université Laval
Jean Baril, Associate Professor, Department of Legal Sciences, UQAM
Jean-François Girard, lawyer and biologist
Elodie Morandini, Director General, Regional Council for the Environment of Laval
Louise Vandelac, Ph.D. Full Professor Department of Sociology and Institute of Environmental Sciences, UQAM. Director of VertigO and CREPPA
Rébecca Pétrin, General Manager, Eau Secours
Robert Godin, retired lawyer
Karel Ménard, Director General, Quebec Common Front for Ecological Waste Management
Catherine Choquette, biologist and full professor, Faculty of Law, Université de Sherbrooke, director of the SAGE research group
Henri Jacob, militant ecologist, president of Action boréale.
Anne-Sophie Hulin, Professor of Law, Faculty of Law, Université de Sherbrooke and holder of the Social Justice and Artificial Intelligence Chair
Stéphanie Roy, Professor of Law, Faculty of Law, University of Sherbrooke
Patrick Forget, professor of law, UQAM
Sébastien Brodeur-Girard, professor at the School of Native Studies, UQAT
Isabelle Miron, Professor, Department of Literary Studies, UQAM
Daria Hobeika, lawyer
Marie-Ève Maillé, lecturer, UQAM and University of Sherbrooke
Paule Halley, lawyer
Jean-Philippe Waaub, Professor, Department of Geography, UQAM
Mario Denis, retired forensic lawyer
Hugo Tremblay, Professor of Law, University of Montreal
Marie Saint-Arnaud, Associate Professor, Institute of Environmental Sciences, UQAM
Bonnie Campbell, Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Political Science and Law, UQAM
Lucie Sauvé, Professor Emeritus — FSE, UQAM, Scientific collective on energy issues in Quebec
Priscilla Gareau, biologist and Ph. D. Env., general manager, Groupe Ambioterra
Marc-Antoine Racicot, lawyer and doctoral student in law, Laval University
Bruce Broomhall, Professor of Law, Department of Legal Sciences, UQAM
André-Yanne Parent, Executive Director, Climate Reality Project Canada
Didier Jadotte Dumerlin, President, PlantAction Movement
Christopher Campbell-Duruflé, Assistant Professor, Lincoln Alexander School of Law, Toronto Metropolitan University
Paul Casavant, President, TerraVie
Sebastian Weissenberger, Scientific collective on energy issues in Quebec, TELUQ University
Gaële Gidrol-Mistral, Professor, Department of Legal Sciences, UQAM
Véronique Fortin, Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Sherbrooke
Anne-Julie Asselin, lawyer, Trudel Johnston Lespérance
Julie Perreault, Executive Director, CCCPEM
Dominic Champagne, agitator
Carole Dupuis, spokesperson, UNEplanète eco-citizen movement
Jacques Boucher, professor of law, secretary general and retired dean of the University of Montreal
Julien Beaulieu, lecturer in law, University of Sherbrooke
Rodrigue Turgeon, lawyer, co-spokesperson for the Coalition Québec mieux mine
Geneviève Tremblay-Racette, Coordinator, Round Table of Voluntary Organizations in Popular Education of the Outaouais (TROVEPO)
Sarah-Katherine Lutz, Executive Director, YOUTH ENvironment
Dominique Leydet, Full Professor, Department of Philosophy, UQAM
Michel Bélanger, lecturer, Masters in Environmental Science, UQAM
Stéphane Bernard, professor of geography, UQAM
Claire Croteau, professor of speech therapy, University of Montreal
Éric Ferland, General Manager, ECOSPHERE Fair
Marc Brullemans, climate mobilization Trois-Rivières
Nathalie Lewis, full professor, environmental sociologist, UQAR
Geneviève Brisson, Scientific Director of the Center for Research in Territorial Development — CRDT, Full Professor, Environmental Lawyer and Anthropologist, UQAR
Isabel Orellana, Director, Center for Research in Education and Training relating to the Environment and Eco-citizenship, UQAM
Eric Notebaert, Vice-President, Quebec Association of Physicians for the Environment
Rachad Antonius, retired full professor, Department of Sociology, UQAM
Lise Parent, Full Professor, Environmental Sciences, TELUQ University
François Brochu, notary
Colette Provost, President, Friends of Lac-d’Argent
Bernard Mathieu, Member, Quebec Association of Physicians for the Environment
Patricia Clermont, Coordinator, Quebec Association of Physicians for the Environment
Martin Poirier, co-spokesperson, NO to an oil spill in the St. Lawrence
Benoit St-Hilaire, Member, Prosperity Without Oil
Christian Daigle, General President, Union of Public and Parapublic Employees of Quebec
David Coulombe, President, Horizon-Nature Bas-Saint-Laurent