After having acted to avoid the destruction of a chorus frog habitat that had been approved by the Quebec government, the federal government is now delaying authorizing the City of Longueuil to carry out urgent work to save what remains. , has learned The duty. The municipality says it wants to protect the area’s wetlands, while completing the boulevard that will cross the critical habitat of the endangered species.
Last year, the Quebec Ministry of the Environment authorized Longueuil to carry out a project to extend Béliveau Boulevard by destroying one of the last habitats of the chorus frog, after having helped the City avoid a scientific opinion from government experts who were very critical of this expansion of a residential area.
Although it was largely completed, this project was subsequently stopped by a court action, then by an “emergency decree” issued in November 2021 by the Trudeau government, under the Act respecting species at risk.
However, the decree is not enough to avoid the destruction of this breeding habitat for the small batrachian. It would also have been necessary to carry out work afterwards to prevent the drainage of the site and the spread of contaminants, and this, in the weeks following the issuance of the decree. At the latest, the work should have been completed before the snow melted, in order to prevent the wetland from drying out. The new administration of Mayor Catherine Fournier had promised it in November.
Four months
More than four months later, nothing has been done. The City of Longueuil has asked several times over the past few months for the necessary authorizations to carry out the work, but the Department of the Environment of Canada has still not given it the green light.
Concretely, since the issuance of the emergency decree, it is forbidden to carry out work in the area listed in the decree. According to a spokesperson for the City, the federal government has therefore requested that a hydrological study be carried out in the area. The results were finally sent to Longueuil on March 18.
But since then, despite exchanges between the City and the federal government, including between the office of Mayor Catherine Fournier and that of Minister Steven Guilbeault, the file is still pending. We do not know when the work could be authorized, which compromises the chances of saving what remains of this chorus frog habitat.
The Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change confirms that it has received “the permit request” from Longueuil. “Under the Species at Risk Act, the Minister must assess the request and ensure that the proposed work does not compromise the survival or recovery of the species,” it says, by email. The ministry also states that it is “treating the request as a priority”, before adding that it wishes to “work in collaboration with the City to protect the tree frog and its habitat”.
For the director general of the Society for Nature and Parks of Quebec (SNAP), Alain Branchaud, it would have been necessary to act several months ago, as recommended by his organization. “The Béliveau boulevard scar will alter the surface hydrology, which risks disrupting reproduction, which should begin in April. The work could however have been done before the end of 2021, ”argues the biologist.
But it’s not too late to save habitat, he says, if you act now. The chorus frog has already lost more than 90% of its habitat in Quebec, mainly due to urban sprawl.
Boulevard to complete
Once the work planned to try to preserve the remaining elements of the tree frog’s habitat in the sector has been completed, the City of Longueuil intends to complete Boulevard Béliveau, which crosses this fragile sector. The reason given is the fact that the work would already be completed “75%”, according to the City.
However, we promise to adapt the road project to the protection measures for the tree frog. In particular, corridors would be built under the road, in order to allow the passage of this batrachian, barely a few centimeters in size.
Longueuil also intends to present a plan for the protection of natural environments on its territory later this year, but also to work on the development of regulations to protect the other habitats of the chorus frog, after the destruction of several between them over the years. According to the City, the federal government would have called for the establishment of such a “permanent protection” plan before considering withdrawing its emergency decree.
Once this decree has been withdrawn, the work to extend the boulevard will be completed, specifies the cabinet of Mr.me Fournier. “Like the City of Longueuil, the Minister is of the opinion that, with certain improvements, it is possible both to complete the boulevard and to preserve the living environment of the tree frog”, adds for its part the office of the Minister of Quebec Environment, Benoit Charette.