The Trudeau government has finally authorized the City of Longueuil to carry out urgent work to try to preserve one of the last chorus frog habitats in Quebec. This wetland was largely destroyed to build a street, with the approval of the Legault government.
The duty revealed on Thursday that the City of Longueuil had been waiting four months for the green light from the federal Ministry of the Environment to carry out work to save what remains of a chorus frog habitat that was severely damaged by the extension of boulevard Béliveau.
On Friday, the Trudeau government finally authorized the work, according to information obtained by The duty. These should also take place this Sunday or in the next few days. Concretely, the City wants to stop the drainage of the sector by blocking the infrastructures that had been put in place when the extension of boulevard Béliveau, in the fall of 2021.
Emergency decree
This residential sector expansion project, which had been carried out thanks to authorizations obtained from the Quebec Ministry of the Environment, was stopped last November by an “emergency decree” from the federal Ministry of the Environment. , in the wake of a legal action led by the Center québécois du droit de l’environnement. The order was issued under the provisions of the Species at Risk Act, which prohibits the destruction of critical habitat identified for an endangered species.
But this stop imposed by the federal government is not enough. Work must now be carried out to prevent the drainage of the site and the spread of contaminants. At the latest, the work must be completed before the snow melts, in order to avoid the wetlands drying out and harming the reproduction period of the small batrachian, which begins in April. The new administration of Mayor Catherine Fournier had also promised to act as early as November 2021.
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.
Boulevard to complete
Once the work planned to attempt to preserve the remaining elements of the tree frog’s habitat in the sector is completed, Ville de Longueuil intends to complete Boulevard Béliveau, which crosses this fragile sector. The reason given is 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. The City has also decided to cancel the housing development that was planned.
The chorus frog has already lost more than 90% of its habitat in Quebec, mainly due to urban sprawl. In a report on “threats” dated March 2021, experts from the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks (MFFP) sounded the alarm by pointing out that less than 25% of chorus frog populations present in the Quebec will be able to survive, unless a brake is put on the growing threats, including urban sprawl.
In a wildlife advisory produced on the proposed extension of boulevard Béliveau, in Longueuil, experts from the MFFP had pointed out that this new section of street would destroy “a key crossing point” and “breeding habitats” of the species which are “particularly active”, and this, in the heart of a site designated as “critical habitat”.
This opinion of Quebec government experts has not been taken into account by the Quebec Ministry of the Environment. The latter has instead chosen to help the City of Longueuil avoid this notice by using the provisions included in the Environmental Quality Act since its redesign in 2018.